


Just For One Day

by Gambitgirl



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Anal Sex, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Bottom Keith (Voltron), Boys Kissing, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Gay Sex, Keith is a potty mouth, Keith is introspective, Korean Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) is a Dork, M/M, Oral Sex, POV Keith (Voltron), POV Lance (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Power Bottom Keith (Voltron), Rimming, Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Top Lance (Voltron), lance is a good boy and never swears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-27
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-04-28 11:25:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 101,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14448279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gambitgirl/pseuds/Gambitgirl
Summary: They’d escaped Naxzela and managed to yank a full third of the Galra Empire right out from under Zarkon’s nose. It wasn’t the end of the war, not by a long shot, but it was a heck of a win and now the Voltron Alliance had momentum.So yeah! Time to savor the victory and pat themselves on the back for pulling off something pretty kickbutt!That was Lance’s resolution and he was sticking to it.And Keith was going to have a good time if it killed him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First Voltron fic woo hoo! 
> 
> This story is already written in its entirety, utterly finished, and will be updated weekly. 
> 
> Each chapter is told from Lance's POV first, then Keith's with ******** marking the POV shift.

They’d escaped Naxzela and managed to yank a full third of the Galra Empire right out from under Zarkon’s nose. It wasn’t the end of the war, not by a long shot, but it was a heck of a win and now the Voltron Alliance had momentum.

So yeah! Time to savor the victory and pat themselves on the back for pulling off something pretty kickbutt!

That was Lance’s resolution and he was sticking to it. Lotor’s surprise appearance had thrown a wrench into things, but the Blue Paladin was stubbornly not going to think too much about the walking hair commercial and leave it to Shiro, Allura, and the Blades to hash out. At least for today. 

For the other Paladins today was about...well, honestly, just being happy they weren’t blown to smithereens. 

Lance had lost count of the times they’d escaped absolute annihilation by a razor thin margin. He’d stopped after the third Ro-beast; otherwise he was going to have a flipping anxiety attack. It was kind a lot for an 18 year old to deal with. 

So, yeah, he wasn’t gonna. Not today!

Tomorrow would be dedicated to the aftermath of the battles, once the dust settled and they could see where everything fell on both sides of the Voltron Alliance’s expanded, liberated territory. Lotor would still be around, being smoothly creepy and stressing everyone out, and Lance would think about all that then. 

But for one day, just one, since he launched Blue and the future Paladins into space, he was going to forget there was a whole lot of universe out there that still needed saving and enjoy this one dang win!

Speaking of stressed out people, the Blue Paladin’s neck craned over the crowd of allies and rebel factions crowding the main plaza of the Olkarion capital, an air of palpable excitement and relief infusing everyone with giddy energy. 

How hard was it to spot one guy in this crowd? Pretty darn hard considering that while the Blade of Marmora stood out, head and shoulders and purple over the other aliens milling about, one particular Blade was kinda short. At least compared to Lance, who was quite proudly a shade over 2 inches taller than him.

“I see him!” Pidge yelled from her perch on Hunk’s shoulders as she pointed to far side of the plaza. In the distance they could see the Black Lion and Lotor’s ship parked beyond the plaza, near a ring of outlying buildings where the Galra prince had been escorted upon landing, under armed guard. 

“Aaaand looks like he’s trying to crash the adult table. C’mon!” she ordered. Hunk and Lance started to jog through the crowd, Pidge directing them from on high. 

Of course, they had to stop half a dozen times to accept congratulations, thanks, and little bit of fandom-esque cheering before Hunk bellowed, “Official Paladin business, coming through! ‘Scuse us!” That allowed them to get through the last of the crowd of aliens quickly enough.

“Keith!” Lance shouted, a sharp edge to his voice that caused the grey and purple clad figure to snap upright from where it was crouched, peeking around a corner, gaze clearly set on the building the Alliance and Blade leadership had disappeared into with Zarkon’s jerk son.

“Oh...hey,” the former Red Paladin said innocently as he turned with a little wave, other hand tucked not at all inconspicuously behind his back and doing a terrible job hiding his Marmora sword.

Lance wondered for a second if he, himself, was the Red Paladin now. Maybe? Who knew? His blue armor didn’t match his new Red Lion or bayard, and thinking too much about the color clash was going to give the sharpshooter a headache, so he just stopped. 

Lance was great at just not thinking when it was convenient. Other times he thought too much.

Now wasn’t one of those times, as his brain apparently decided that punching Keith in the chest was a great way to say hello.

“Holy quiznak, who said you could kamikaze your dumb butt into a Galra warship?!” Lance would’ve felt bad at the way Keith wheezed and stumbled back at the sudden, hard strike, except:

A) Keith was an idiot! 

B) Lance almost never managed to get a hit like that on him, so that was cool.

C) Pidge thumped the short Blade on the head with her bayard so beating up their former teammate was apparently a thing they were doing. Sweet.

“Hey! Cut it out!” Keith raised his hands over his head in a vain effort to protect himself as Pidge rained down another flurry of smacks. Hunk took pity on their former teammate and stepped back two feet, taking the irate Green Paladin out of range. 

“You’re lucky I don’t taze you, you jerk! Don’t do that!” she shouted as she scrambled from her perch; Hunk winced when she yanked on his armor on the way down. “Tell him, Hunk!”

“Yeah, man,” the Yellow Paladin agreed with an uncharacteristically somber look on his face that, amazingly, made the usually bold Blade wilt a little under it. “We didn’t survive Planet Nuke just to watch you splatter yourself all over a particle barrier. Not cool, man. Not cool.”

Lance gaped when Keith unexpectedly ducked his head, Blade hood falling over his eyes, and he actually shuffled his feet momentarily as his sword shrank back to a dagger. 

“Um...sorry? About that?” Like he wasn’t sure if he was actually sorry, or maybe he thought he should say that because they clearly expected a show of remorse.

Typical Keith. 

Honestly, thank quiznak he was an awesome fighter because he’d be the worst diplomat. Keith Kogane had all the social acumen of a Balmeran rock mite. 

Which is to say, zero.

Lance glared at his former teammate. He couldn’t believe Keith tried sacrifice himself! The Blue Paladin didn’t fly his dumb mullet all the way into space for the guy to throw himself away like that. 

Like he was cannon fodder, like he didn’t matter. 

He mattered! The idiot!

“You’re an idiot!” the Blue Paladin said sharply. “If 17 kinds of ship blasters couldn’t get through that shield why the heck would ramming it with your dinky fighter do anything!?”

He had half a mind to explain to Keith in detail, at top volume, that the moment the Paladins realized what Keith was about to do it felt like Lance’s Lion depressurized, all the air sucked out.

The vacuum of space, no sound, nothing but the roar in Lance’s ears of his own panicky heartbeat and the rasp of ragged, quick breaths as he watched the pinpoint of light that was Keith streak towards the menacing bow of the huge battle cruiser. 

“Someone had to do something,” the Blade defended, but it didn’t quite carry the same amount of fire as their usual arguments. If anything he looked embarrassed at the obvious flaw in his spur-of-the-moment plan Lance succinctly pointed out with his usual directness.

“Something smart, not something stupid!” Lance countered. “Quit charging in without thinking, Keith! That’s not how we win wars! It’s definitely not how we survive them!” Lance’s hand dashed out again, fist doubled up because apparently his brain wasn’t done punching the guy. It was either deck him again or clap a hand over his own mouth so Lance didn’t say something he didn’t mean, or really meant, and embarrassed them both. 

The Blade didn’t let him get another hit in, and he caught Lance’s fist easily with a meaty slap against his palm. The Blue Paladin was kinda offended and impressed at that move. 

“Guess I should work on strategic tactics some more, huh?” The Blade offered a crooked smile at the sharpshooter then to the Green and Yellow Paladins behind him. They’d been backing Lance up with disapproving expressions but softened at Keith’s words. “...I really am sorry.”

Lance snorted and jerked his hand away. “Yeah, you totally do!” He blew out a breath, trying to reign his temper in as he folded his arms over his breastplate. “And you should be, jerk.”

Ha, and he called Keith the hothead. Also, how dare he use that quirky little smile; that stuff should be illegal, it was practically weaponized and Lance, like the other Paladins, was pretty helpless against it. Lance probably moreso. 

Somewhere between trying to be his his rival, sorta hating him, then kinda respecting him, then maybe tolerating him, Lance wound up liking Mullet. Ain’t that a kick in the armor?

There were about eleven other insults Lance wanted to fling at his old teammate for being so reckless and nearly giving all the Paladins heart attacks. They had enough things trying to kill them, so one of their own giving them a collective coronary was not okay! And poor Shiro didn’t need more white in his hair!

Lance settled on, “Good to see you, man, even if you are a complete and utter moron.” It was probably the biggest understatement of Lance’s life. 

Gah! Keith was so...so KEITH! 

Dang, Lance was glad to see him.

This time when his hand shot forward Keith met it with a hard shake, which turned into a jerk that pulled the Blue Paladin in for a quick, but unmistakable, hug. 

Keith + hugging. 

It did not compute for the Blue Paladin. His brain kinda blipped offline for a tic, and he didn’t shove away as quickly as he probably should have.

“You too, Lance. All of you.” Keith’s voice was uncharacteristically warm and a little close to the tall Paladin’s ear.

But okay! Never let it be said Lance didn’t know how to roll with the proverbial punches or a lame bro-hug. 

That kinda made him shiver, but, yeah, another thing he wasn’t going to think about today. There was a list, and it was getting a little long.

But he was glad Mullet wasn’t dead. Relieved, flipping ecstatic, plus he hadn’t actually seen the former Red Paladin face to face for months, not since he farted off to join the Blade. 

Not that Lance resented that, he totally didn’t. 

It’s just that Keith actually hadn’t been nearly as bad a leader of Voltron as Lance had initially feared and Keith had continued to think throughout his tenure. The tall Paladin had just started getting used to being his right hand. 

Sure, no one could ever replace Shiro, but Keith didn’t have to replace him, be like him, that totally wasn’t possible. Shiro was...Shiro. 

But Keith was good too, really good, once he got over his crazy Lotor tunnel vision and started working with the rest of the Paladins instead of trying to override them to chase after the purple doofus. He’d been so good the Blade of Marmora snatched Keith up, crammed him into a stupid tight glowing bodysuit, and dragged him a few galaxies away to go be a flipping space ninja.

Nope, Lance didn’t resent that at all. 

The Blade’s previously small smile grew bigger as Hunk and Pidge moved forward to hug him too, and like that Keith was forgiven for nearly killing himself in a pointless smear across the front of a Galra warship. 

The butthead.

Pidge still managed to dig her bayard into his ribs one last time. “I’m 100% serious about tazing if you try something like that again. And Hunk will sit on you.”

Hunk opened his mouth to protest before he shrugged with a grin. “Yeah, okay, fair. It is my finishing move heeeeyah!” He mimed dropping an atomic elbow on the Blade’s head, and Keith laughed as he flung his arms up again in mock protection. 

“Ok, ok, I got it! Blade’s honor,” he replied, holding up his other hand before he realized his dagger was still in it, and he sheepishly slipped it into the sheath at the small of his back.

Lance squinted at him. “Oh no. No no no! No sneaking off to stab Lotor, c’mon!” He hooked a hand in Keith’s elbow and hauled him in the opposite direction. Keith had maxed out his dumb idea quota for the day.

“I wasn’t gonna stab him!” the former Paladin protested. The lie died on his tongue when Lance cast a sarcastically skeptical look over his shoulder. “Ok, so maybe I was gonna stab him but c’mon! It’s Lotor, and he just handed himself to us on a silver platter!”

Pidge sighed and pushed up her glasses as she walked alongside them. “Yeah, but Shiro, Allura, and Kollivan have him. He’s not going anywhere. They’ll figure out what he wants, and we’ll proceed from there.”

“Guys!” Keith protested, even if he didn’t stop the Paladins from bullying him across the plaza. “We know what he wants: to destroy Voltron and take over the universe!”

“Then why did he shoot down Hagar’s ship and stop Naxzela from blowing up and taking Voltron, plus most of the Alliance, with it? Huh, smart guy?” Lance razzed as he continued to drag Keith away from his ill-advised assassination attempt. 

Hunk chimed in, “Look, I dislike the guy as much as you, Keith, but he did save our collective bacon and surrender willingly.” 

Keith huffed; they all had a point, even if the reasons behind the Galra prince’s actions were currently inscrutable 

“So let the Princess, and the Blade of Marmora figure what exactly is going on, and if they decide he’s a liability then you’ll get to stab him,” Pidge said quite reasonably.

The former Red Paladin nodded slowly, placated for the time being, even as he cast a longing look over his shoulder in the direction of the guy he really, really wanted to stab. Lance tightened his grip on his arm, and marched him away. 

Like heck he was gonna let Keith muck up the plan to enjoy just one day without death and destruction. Lance was going to make sure they relaxed, even if it killed them.

*********************************************************************************************

It was only due to months of strict training under the Blade of Marmora that Keith didn’t jump a meter in the air then immediately slash out with his sword at the yell of his name directly behind him.

Well, that and he’d recognize Lance hollering from two solar systems away, minimum. It had been the background noise of his life since they’d all launched into space over a year ago. 

Except recently. 

Since he’d joined the Blades Keith’s life was quiet in a way he didn’t know what to do with. It was different than the desolate, isolated hush of the desert, the only sound the breeze whispering over hard packed earth and wind scoured rocks. 

With the Galra rebels it was the low steady hum of the ships on which they traveled, the sonorous, calm voices of the Blades during strategy meetings, even during combat training. The soft suss of grey and purple clad figures moving past each other in the dark, slick and smooth as they infiltrated and undermined Zarkon’s evil empire, exacting as a scalpel.

The Blades were not what he’d expected, then they’d become more to the former Red Paladin than he could have ever anticipated. They were Galra, sure, but they had a certain restraint, a tightly controlled level-headedness Keith hadn’t witnessed in others of their race, who had always struck him more as single-minded, ravenous beasts than anything, i.e. huge assholes.

Everything was quiet, controlled, and meticulous with the Blades. It was how they’d flown under Zarkon’s radar for deca-phoebs and quietly worked to undermine his insidious regime from within. Stealthy infiltration, get in, get out, try not to be noticed. If you were leave no witnesses. Be small, discrete. 

Acknowledge and accept that you were of little consequence. Only the mission, only ending the Galra Empire’s tyranny mattered.

If you died in pursuit of that goal you died a good death and were not mourned; your sacrifice may be briefly acknowledged before the next mission was underway. There would be a time for mourning when every last planet under Zarkon’s thumb was liberated. 

By the time that happened it was unlikely anyone would remember you existed in the first place. So accept you were naught but a tool to accomplish something greater than you, individually, could ever hope to be. 

The one is nothing.

That had been Keith’s life for months. Tightly controlled, focused, restrained, quiet. He was nothing but a cog in the smoothly oiled machine of the Blade of Marmora. Small, swift, a lethal whisper.

But with that one yell the volume in Keith’s world was turned up to 11; the black and gray and muted violet of his recent existence burst back into Technicolor. 

And something in his chest that had been quietly aching for months jolted so hard he felt it slam against his ribs.

He turned, one hand raised, the other shoved behind his back to hide his sword. “Oh...hey.” Blue and Green and Yellow and human. Not Galra. So very human and vibrant.

Shit, he was glad to see them face to face. He wasn’t the best with social interaction, too quick to anger and lash out, to push away. But he’d missed them more than was probably healthy, considering he’d barely known any of them a year and the likelihood any of them would make it out of this war alive was slim.

But he had missed them. Him. Terribly.

Two tics later Keith almost changed his mind when Lance hit him in the solar plexus with a hell of a punch that staggered him back a meter. There’d been time when a move like that would’ve resulted in an fist to the Blue Paladin’s face, but it didn’t this time because:

1\. He was actually impressed Lance nailed him, and hard too! A year ago Keith would’ve had him in a bone-cracking arm lock before his fist ever made contact.

2\. It was accompanied by an absolute torrent of name-calling and shouted insults that all stemmed from how worried Lance was.

3\. Keith didn’t have time to respond before Pidge cracked him on the skull with her bayard. He missed his Paladin helmet at times like this.

Keith threw up his arms in self-defense, head ducked down to hide the smile that threatened to slip free. Demonstrations of affection through the occasional display of violence was Keith’s language, and he was fluent in it. He knew their anger at him came from concern. 

They were so different from the Blades. He mattered to them, as an individual, not just as a Paladin, as Voltron’s sword. As a friend.

“Um...sorry? About that?” It was hard to feel genuinely sorry for what he’d tried to do; it had been a desperate, frantic Hail Mary to try and stop an indescribable horror from unfolding and killing everyone, especially his friends. His family.

He didn’t think when he did it. It felt like Keith never thought when it came to them; he only felt. But he regretted scaring him, upsetting them.

Right now Lance was really pissed, it showed in the way his usually tanned, smooth face was pinched and flushed. Revealed itself in the way he managed to glare down his nose at Keith from a less than 2 inch height advantage. How his usual soft tenor pitched lower, imbuing every reprimand, every time he called Keith dumb or a jerk, with a gravity the usually light-hearted Blue Paladin rarely displayed.

Or was he the Red Paladin now? Keith wasn’t sure. Even if Lance flew Red and carried his old bayard, he still wore blue.

Lance was blue. 

He was water; he went with the flow in so many ways, with the change in leadership of Voltron, reading the current when Black chose Keith. 

Lance followed the tide when Shiro returned and offered to step down, convinced he was superfluous. When the offer was rebuffed as crazy, Lance became Keith’s steady right hand. Then Shiro’s when Keith left. 

Lance was fluid like that, moving seamlessly from one strength to the next, first the legs on which Voltron stood then the furiously swinging sword of the Great Protector. 

The Blade hardly paid attention to what he said in response, it was practically second nature to bicker with Lance, take the opposing side, defend himself even when his position was indefensible. It wasn’t that he truly believed the Blue Paladin was wrong, Lance wasn’t. It was just how they were. How they had been, anyway. 

Keith didn’t know what they were now, but he wanted to.

Fire, water, red and blue, hot temper versus rationality, Lance’s strategy to Keith’s impulse. 

The Blade didn’t realized how much color was missing from his recent life until those eyes caught his.

They were the most amazing blue Keith had ever seen.

Of course, they didn’t distract him enough that he didn’t intercept the next punch thrown at him. Once was a freebie, and he spared a little smile at the other teen when he caught Lance’s fist easily. The tanned Paladin’s face did this cute contortion that said he wasn’t sure if he was mad or thought it was pretty cool Keith caught his punch like some dude from a kung-fu movie.

“Guess I should work on my tactical strategies some more, huh?” 

Lance’s hand firmed and pulled him in. Keith hadn’t been hugged in so long, not since he left the team. Before them, before amazing mechanical sentient lions, and aliens, and the vastness of space, Keith had never thought about how bone deep the need for physical connection would ache sometimes.

It wasn’t like sex; he had that a few times, pleasurable, shallow, fleeting. It didn’t compare to the sudden warmth that seeped through his environmentally sealed Blade suit with the sharp, short collision of Lance’s lanky armored frame to his, one arm circled around his shoulder, a hand large and solid between his shoulder blades. 

Though it left after a few tics the Blade knew he’d feel its weight for vargas yet. 

Space was cold, weightless, and Lance was anything but.

When Pidge and Hunk squared up to embrace him too, Keith couldn’t help the smile that spread. It felt foreign but also welcome. It wasn’t until his friends were there, in front of him, reaching out, and it didn’t matter with fists or open arms, that he realized he hadn’t felt happy for ages. 

Sure, taking the Ziaforge canon was great; he’d felt accomplished, proud. When Naxzela was defused, and he watched Voltron fly past his tiny ship, safe and free, relief washed over him like a tsunami and left him rocked, gasping. 

The hand Keith had clapped over his mouth, he didn’t know if it was there to stifle the sudden, sharp hyperventilations that wracked him over near death or to hold him together when he threatened to break apart alone in that small cockpit over the dizzying relief everyone else was alive. 

This was easier, uncomplicated. His friends, familiar faces, hands grabbing at him affectionately even as their voices were chiding. He wanted to hang on to this for as long as he possibly could, before tomorrow came and it was back to the hush and monochrome. 

Back to the war. 

It wasn’t over. It wouldn’t be over for a long time. So he let Lance and Hunk and Pidge pull him away, offering up only token resistance, because they really did have a point. If Lotor was conniving and sneaking Allura or Shiro would probably rip his head off before Keith got a chance to slide his Marmora blade between his ribs.

He had a feeling Kolivan wouldn’t participate in such an act. But the Blade leader wouldn’t intervene if it was decided killing the exiled Prince was strategically advantageous.

For now, Keith would let the leaders deal with it. He was only 19, and he’d done enough for one day. He killed and fought and nearly died and, damnit, he hadn’t seen his friends in so long. The war could live without him for one day. 

And he had to live without it for just a few vargas, or he’d start screaming.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and his former teammate sat on a low wall surrounding something that looked like a park fountain, but that definitely wasn’t water spouting up and forming weird geometrics shapes mid-air before it dropped back down to the pool below. They watched that for a few doboshes, listening to the babble of Alliance and invasion survivors around them.
> 
> “Are you seriously gonna stay with the Blade of Marmora?”

“Okay, Pidge!” Lance exclaimed as he drew up to sudden stop and Keith nearly crashed into his back. “Since you’re our resident Olkari expert, we’re relying on you to figure what food they have that isn’t completely weird and also where the heck a bunch of cool heroes like us can relax because we totally earned it!” He nodded like his word was law. 

When it came to having a good time it generally was. Lance had the best ideas for downtime, aside from the one unfortunate evening he taught Coran poker. Never. Again. 

The space dodgeball tournament, however, was going to go down in Voltron history as so so so epic. Didn’t matter that he lost, big time, when he faced down with Shiro in the final round. The fact that he got their fearless leader to laugh like he wasn’t a general in an intergalactic war, while carrying around a massive case of repressed space PTSD, but just a regular 25 year old messing around with his friends was something the Blue Paladin ranked as one of his top 5 accomplishments in his space history. Flying the Lions took up spots one through three easily and actually becoming awesome friends with all these weirdos was a solid four.

He dropped Keith’s arm to put a hand on Pidge’s back and give her a gentle shove in the direction of the various food carts and pop-up stalls that had cropped up on the northern perimeter of the plaza as the crowd of excited rebels and revellers grew.

She immediately grabbed Hunk, their real food expert, and set off on their mission because seizing a third of the Galra empire was hungry work.

Lance and his former teammate sat on a low wall surrounding something that looked like a park fountain, but that definitely wasn’t water spouting up and forming weird geometrics shapes mid-air before it dropped back down to the pool below. They watched that for a few doboshes, listening to the babble of Alliance and invasion survivors around them.

“Are you seriously gonna stay with the Blade of Marmora?”

Lance’s mouth tended to get ahead of his brain sometimes. He honestly had intended to keep the conversation light and easy, about anything other than the war and all that other heavy stuff. Dangit.

But, yeah, he wanted to know. Needed to.

Keith sighed and raised a dark gloved hand to brush his hood back, not looking at him. “You guys seem to doing great. Allura’s killing it with Blue and you’re taking great care of Red. Five Lions and six Palad-”

“You said to leave the math to Pidge,” Lance interrupted. “C’mon, Keith. I know the Blades are cool and stuff, but we’re...dude, we’re...like…and I...” The Blue Paladin sighed, both unable and unwilling to put a label on their lonely little group of humans cast into the deep reaches of space and fighting to save pretty much all of existence. In this reality, anyway.

And he definitely didn’t want to put a label on whatever he was, or what Keith was in relation to him, or them. Not that there was a them!

There was Lance and there was Keith, Blue and Red. Or purple right now since Keith was was a Blade. And Lance was the Red Paladin, maybe. 

He didn’t know what they were. 

He used to know, when Keith was with them, with Voltron. Everything was pretty clear back then. Keith was the right hand man, sword in his hand or in the grip of his Lion’s jaw, and Lance was a leg, something steady on which the whole team could rely. At least he hoped they could. 

Now he was the right hand and Keith was something else entirely. Not like he was back then, when he was easy to pinpoint, to find on the Castle, to snark at and banter with.

Ha, back then. Like it was deca-phoebes instead of just movements. 

It felt like deca-phoebes to Lance. 

Time was weird in space.

He was sure they all missed their birthdays somewhere in the whole mess. He was positive it was all still kinda a mess.

Lance certainly felt like one when he glanced over at Keith’s pale profile, dark hair falling into weird purple eyes that were too big for his face, but somehow they fit.

It was a strange twist of fate that lead to Keith leaving, instead of Lance when he’d tried to gracefully bow out, securing the tall Paladin’s place with Voltron. While Lance had been beyond happy Shiro was back, and Keith was relieved of the burden of leadership he’d started to buckle under, the Blue Paladin hated that it all gave Keith the excuse to slip away from him, them. 

Sure, he was beyond happy he had a Lion after the team shakeup. Red was amazing, but she wasn’t Blue. Red belonged to Keith, always would. Blue was Lance’s; it didn’t matter if Allura was in the pilot’s chair for now. 

Lance didn’t have a lot of faith in much in this whole crazy war, but he knew...no, he believed because he had to, that things were gonna one day settle back into alignment. Keith as Shiro’s right hand, Lance right next to Hunk as the emotional pillars holding up Voltron.

He missed a lot of things. Earth, his family, Shiro when he vanished, and now Keith, even though he was right there. And Lance missed Blue. 

So much stuff seemed to be slipping away from him, even though Blue was chilling in the Castle right now, and Keith was right there.

The Blue Lion was calm, collected; her thoughts glided over Lance’s like waves over sand. They buoyed him, reminded him of the ocean when he let the currents carry him away from the beach in front of his family’s home. He’d floated, peaceful then. He felt the same sort of peace in Blue, even when zig-zagging around Galra drone ships and fighting tooth and nail to survive. She was a new kind of home to him, when his real home was incalculably far away.

Red was fast, spirited, lively, like the Blade sitting next to him. Fiery and wild and something Lance didn’t feel entirely at ease with, even as she awed him, scared him a little the way she reacted with such intensity under his hands. 

Red itched at him, not in a bad way, but like something that niggled under his skin he couldn’t quite scratch. Like her real Paladin.

Unnatural violet eyes stared across the plaza, not seeing a single being or thing there, focused on something else. 

Keith was intense like that, at the same time so distant even when he was within arm’s reach. So was Red. 

Ferocious. 

The both took up space in Lance’s head in a way that was undeniable, immutable as gravity. 

Even when Keith wasn’t there, when Lance flew Red it seemed like he was, in a way. 

Sometimes Lance couldn’t stand the way it felt, and he hoped Red didn’t hold it against him. If she was anything like Keith, she’d be snippy for a bit then forgive him. Hopefully.

“I don’t know,” Keith replied, dragging Lance back to the present, and he yanked his gaze away from the Blade’s pale profile. “Voltron seems really strong right now. Is it a good idea to mess with a winning team?” 

He gave the Blue Paladin a little smile. His deadliest weapon, in Lance’s opinion. “The Blades. They’re not you guys, that’s for sure. But I feel like it’s where I’m supposed to be, at least right now. I don’t know how to explain it.” The former Paladin looked down at his feet. 

Lance watched for a quintent, blue eyes falling to the black gloved fingers slowly twisting in the Blade’s lap. He knew Keith well enough to know that he never said anything he didn’t mean, but he also wasn’t entirely settled with this particular truth. Like he wasn’t with learning he was part Galra. 

“You know, just because you’re, like, one-sixteenth Galra or something doesn’t mean they’re your people. You’re fourteen-sixteenths human, so maybe you should stick with us Earthlings.” Lance was only kind of joking.

“That leaves a sixteenth what?”

“Mullet.”

Keith groaned and socked Lance in the arm. “Quiznak, I walked right into that one, didn’t I?”

“Sure did!” the Blue Paladin crowed, bright eyes sparking with humor, the tense mood broken for now. “What’s say we forget about all this universe saving junk for the rest of the day and chill?” He leaned over to bump his shoulder into the Blade’s. Yeah, they should unwind, eat, drink, be merry and do something so his thoughts quit going in hopeless directions.

Lance sucked in a breath when Keith didn’t bump back but leaned into his side briefly instead.

The Blue Paladin decidedly didn’t stare at him, like he was tempted to do, and instead looked around at the multitude of aliens of every shape, size, and color, the Lions in the distance, Red, Yellow, Green, Black, the strange fountain, then at the very weird looking but awesome smelling food on large plates Hunk and Pidge carried up to them. 

Keith hummed, as though weighing his options. “Yeah...yeah ok. I mean, we earned it right?” Violet eyes swung to lock on blue and something in Lance’s chest seized up for a tic before it unclenched. 

Yeah, they’d earned it. No group of Garrison dropouts had earned anything more than them. Actually, they were probably all expelled for going AWOL. Whatever.

“That’s the spirit,” Lance chuckled and his breathing returned to normal when Keith moved away to take the plate Pidge handed him. Well, at least until Keith sunk his teeth into a fingertip and pulled off a glove so he could pick at his food without dirtying his uniform. 

What was it with this guy and gloves?! What was it with Lance and Keith and gloves? 

Nah, that wasn’t on the thinking about it list today. Lance would deal with that, all of that, tomorrow. When Keith ran off with the Blades of Marmora again and took his stupid gloves with him. 

That thought nearly soured Lance’s mood until the former Red Paladin took an adventuresome bite of something on a stick that had more legs than was at all evolutionarily reasonable and exclaimed, “Holy shit, why does this taste exactly like fried chicken?! Lance, you gotta try this.”

**********************************************************************************************************

 

“Are you really going to stay with the Blade of Marmora?”

Keith dragged his eyes away from Lance’s expression; it was uncomfortably forlorn. He wasn’t used to seeing the Blue Paladin like that, and he didn’t know what to say when it happened. Like when Lance came to him, when he was team leader, and confessed he felt of useless and offered to step down. Keith sort of insulted his friend’s math skills as a way of giving a pep talk.

It was easier to deal with Lance when he was rapid fire quips and laser shots, quick witted and snippy. But that was only one side to the Paladin; over the last deca-phoebe Keith learned the tanned teen wasn’t the shallow showboat he’d initially dismissed him as when they first met. This uncomfortably tentative side of Lance, his expression when he asked the Blade if he’d stay away was...very real.

Speaking of, when Keith turned to look over at his former teammate sitting on the low wall around the freaky fountain, he almost flinched at the intensity of the gaze directed at him. So blue, vivid and piercing.

When Lance looked at him like that Keith’s breath hitched, like it didn’t know it was coming or going, trapped in a cycle that would leave him light-headed if he held that gaze too long. 

“You’re all doing great. Allura’s taking care of Blue and you work really well with Red. Five Lions, six Paladins...”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to come back, he did. Once he saw the Paladins, his friends, the desire to rejoin them, remind himself of their vibrant presence and how it filled up all the empty spaces in his life for those short, terrifying, exhilarating movements before he was pulled away from them….it was so strong, so overpowering he felt his something in his chest ache.

That could have also been the result of Lance’s wicked strike to his sternum.

Keith wanted to rejoin them, him, more than anything. 

The Castle, for all its vast unoccupied spaces, meant to house hundreds rather than a handful, was full of light and life in a way that filled up empty hallways and quiet corners. It was the presence of the people that lived there; they occupied the void that had been inside Keith too. He simply hadn’t noticed it until he slipped away and everything became quiet again, hollow. Although he was surrounded by the Blade of Marmora, he wasn't of them. Not entirely. 

Being alone felt foreign for the first time to Keith.

With Voltron he’d had his own space, not that he’d done much with it. He could have added something more to his room than his clothes tucked away and his knife on the desk or under his pillow. But a lifetime of spartan living, never knowing when he would need to move or be forced to leave, made living threadbare and unattached a hard habit to break.

He wanted to break it now. Make a home where he laid his head, and that wouldn’t be on a bunk in a Blade barrack. Maybe he wouldn’t get a pair of ridiculous lion slippers like Lance, but it would probably be nice if he had something to look at besides bare walls. Something to do in his room besides ruminate on how he had to leave planet Earth to feel any attachment to it. 

It took seeing how small and fragile it truly was, a luminous blue marble hanging against the vast backdrop of the dark unknown, to give a single crap about anyone on it except Shiro. 

In order to protect Earth, Keith knew he had to be with the Blade. Voltron was so strong now, Lance was Shiro’s sword, his lieutenant, and it suited him well. Keith would have never thought it when they first met, but the Blue Paladin’s brashness wasn’t entirely misplaced. He was fearless in a way the Blade wasn’t; what Keith had really been was fierce, angry. 

It wasn’t the same. Keith was afraid. All the damn time.

Lance kept his cool under fire. All that relentless wild energy, that powered him through each day with cheery abandon, was tempered and focused when on mission.

“You said to leave the math to Pidge,” Lance interrupted. “Keith,I know the Blades are cool...but...I...we...” Keith’s eyes fixated on the Blue Paladin’s face when it tipped down to stare at white boots idly scuffing cobblestones.

Lance cared so much for everyone around him, and it made the Blade feel small in comparison sometimes. Not in a malicious way. Long gone were the days when the Blue Paladin would’ve rubbed Keith’s lack of empathy in his face, accusing him of being so cool he was cold. 

No, his deficiencies were things Keith pointed out to himself now, a light shone on them simply by seeing how far short he fell of people like Lance, Hunk, Allura when it came to making connections with other, showing genuine care.

That was why he’d had to leave; Keith was selfish. All he’d cared about was getting to Lotor, he’d forgotten there was more to Voltron than the fight. There were the Paladins and they were more important than the robots and the magic. They were so damned important to him, and Keith knew he would get them killed if he didn’t step aside. He’d get Lance killed.

He wasn’t Shiro. Keith wasn’t a leader, he was just a weapon. The Blade of Marmora knew best how to hone him with precision and point him at a target with pinpoint accuracy. 

“They aren’t you guys, that’s for sure. But I know it’s where I’m supposed to be, for now anyway. I don’t know how to explain it.” Keith looked down at his feet. 

He really didn’t, except he kind of did. 

The Blades didn’t make him care about them, only their cause. Keith was selfish, he knew that. The Blade were teaching him not to be, in their own way. He gave up something he really wanted to keep, his Marmora dagger during the Trails, his friends when it became clear he was going to be a liability, because he needed to think about more than his wants, expand his view and find strength in something besides anger and fear.

The Blade were Galra; they were Galra fighting against evil, good Galra. When Keith found out he was Galra all he saw was a monster when he looked in the mirror, even if he was still as human looking as ever. Sometimes he’d peer at his reflection for hours, searching for any spark of yellow flashing in his dark eyes, a purple tinge creeping into his skin. Each time he got angry he wondered if he was having a normal emotional reaction or was there something feral, malicious, and alien riding just below the surface.

He looked the same. Tired, sure, the bags under his eyes some days as dark as his eyes. His nail were still blunt where he bit them to the quick, no claws. The only violet to his skin were bruises from training, fighting, killing. 

But he knew something was lurking there, under his flesh, in his brain. It itched at him sometimes, made him impulsive. Rash. More than usual. 

Ready to slam his ship into an impenetrable force field kind of rash. 

**_Victory or death._ **

But not all Galra were bad, some of them were working hard to do the right thing. If he had to be Galra, he wanted to be the good kind. He needed to learn how to be good, better in general. Less bitter, less furious. Hopefully learn to stop shoving people away when they edged too close, as if they were stealing the very air he breathed. 

As if that explained why his chest felt tight when he looked at the Blue Paladin. 

“You know, just because you’re one-sixteenth Galra doesn’t mean they’re your people,” Lance prodded him with a nudge to his shoulder. “You’re fourteen-sixteenths human, so should stick with us.” That smile, the one the Blue Paladin shared so easily, washed away the Blade’s pensive thoughts as easily as waves smoothing out footprints over sand.

“What’s the last sixteenth?” He already knew it was coming, Lance was wonderfully predictable like that sometimes, and Keith didn’t mind. He hadn’t heard a crack about his hair in movements, and stupidly enough, he missed that too.

“Mullet.”

“Quiznak, I walked right into that one!” He socked the Blue Paladin in the shoulder with a small laugh. For a moment it didn’t feel like he’d been on the other side of the galaxy for movements; this was familiar, this was something just him, them. No lives were on the line, no planet’s fate hung in the balance. Only Keith’s ego was in danger of being bruised by the sharp tongued Paladin.

“Ha! You sure did!” Lance sassed with a bright look in his ocean deep eyes. Blue like his Lion, like water. Flowing over Keith as a river over rocks, gradually rounding out his sharp edges with his persistence, his immutable presence. 

“How about we forget about this universe saving crap and just chill?” The Blade smiled when the Blue Paladin leaned into him, a long line of heat against his side. In the cold of space, Lance was warm, even fiery, when excited, anxious, irritated. When he just...was.

From the start Keith had felt how heated things were between them. 

First it was tense, crackling, the stress of being launched away from everything familiar and into a galactic war had them tearing at each other, insults flying and sometimes fists. Then horrible green goo was flung into someone’s face and something fractured. 

A chip appeared in the wall Keith had built around himself brick by brick since he was a kid, until it was so tall no one except Shiro was ever able to glimpse over it. 

The chip became a crack. The crack became a split.

Soon enough the dam broke and in poured colors, swirling, so bright it made his eyes hurt and reminded Keith of supernova and nebula. Laughter, loud and boisterous, washed over him and chased away the quiet that had surrounded him for so long sometimes he thought he’d gone deaf.

“Yeah....yeah, okay. We earned it, right?” A day off from saving the galaxy, what a small thing to ask for. So why did he feel guilty? 

Maybe it was because when he’d run frantically for his ship, leaving his squad behind on Semfama, he hadn’t been thinking about the galaxy, the Galra, the Alliance, or Zarkon. All he knew was he wouldn’t survive without them, his friends. Even if his body kept moving and his mouth opened and closed and issued forth furious recriminations at himself and his heart beat, he’d be extinguished along with them in all the ways that mattered.

Keith would die for them or with them.

**_Vrepit sa._ **

This was why Keith needed them, him. He needed those blue eyes on him, tight in anger for nearly killing himself, wide with laughter when he got the joke for once, tracking over his face when he said he couldn’t come home just yet. Like they were memorizing his features.

The Blade needed this color in his life. Something more important than victory. Someone, something to fight for.

“That’s the spirit, Keith.” And Lance leaned back into him and held him up. There was a reason that even if the Blue Paladin was now Voltron’s sword, he wasn’t just a weapon, like the Blade. Lance was the cornerstone that braced the team, kept them steady. 

Keith knew he was looking at Lance the way hadn’t allowed himself before; not even from the corner of his eye when the Blue Paladin was sassing Pidge or draped himself all over Hunk with unrestrained affection. 

The Blade was more than relieved when the aforementioned Paladins arrived with food. Even if it had way more legs than anything he’d consume on Earth, Keith was more than ready to eat something besides what came in the ration pouches the Blades survived on for the most part. He bit into the tip of a finger and stripped his glove off.

He didn’t miss the small noise the Blue Paladin made when he did that, he couldn’t given they were seated so close their legs brushed. It didn’t dissuade Keith from doing the same with his other hand as he moved the plate. 

If anything it encouraged him. 

Nearly smearing his fighter across a particle barrier wasn’t the only rash thing he suspected he’d do today.

One of the reasons he’d left Voltron, a very private one, was because Keith hoped this heat he’d been unable to ignore would be smothered in the vacuum of space. He didn’t want to burn the Blue Paladin. He’d scorched and wrecked enough things in his life.

But he had almost died today, all of them had, and by a closer margin than ever.

Keith was tired. Tired of the relentless grind of war, of being afraid all the damn time. Tired of doing what he had to and not necessarily what he wanted. Tired of being afraid of being burned, burning someone. He’d been the Red Paladin, the guardian of fire. 

He felt the heat in his face whenever the Blue Paladin turned to look at him. Keith hoped some flames didn’t consume everything, that at least one of them lit the way home.

Enough of this, the Blade thought wryly. He’d tormented himself with thoughts like this for so long, he was tired. But for now, he wasn’t scared. For now he could breathe without feeling like the next exhale would be a scream of frustration or fury.

Like Lance said, forget about this universe saving shit for one day. 

Relax. 

Have a little fun. 

Do what you want.

“Lance, you’ve got to try this.” He offered a bite of his food to the Paladin.

Do what you want.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do what you want, huh? What would that be Keith?
> 
> Next chapter you'll find out!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even defenders of the universe deserve a night off!
> 
> As always this story is told from Lance's POV first, then switches to Keith's with ***** to mark the division.
> 
> Please enjoy, kudo, comment, and subscribe for updates.

A few vargas later the sun was going down on the capital and the humans found themselves caught up in a game that resembled Earth soccer with some Olkari and Taujeerian adolescents. The bubbly green guys were surprisingly agile for looking like a couple of beach balls stacked on top of each other. 

Lance played soccer for most of his life, first in grade school, then summer club, even on the Garrison intramural team for a semester before he had to knuckle down for the pilot exams.His torso guard and helmet sat on the sidelines while the Blue Paladin rainbow kicked the ball to Keith, who dribbled it quickly around two Olkari to fire it at the column they had to hit in order to score a **_drovit_**. 

Team Voltron groaned in unison as the Blade’s shot went wide by several meters. Keith shrugged sheepishly at them, hands up. “Guess that’s why I’m not the sharpshooter?”

Lance threw his hands up in mock exasperation, “Pidge, take over for Two Left Feet over there, Keith, you’re on defense. Hunk?” He grinned at his bestest buddy, who smiled back broadly as he cracked his knuckles and squared off against 2 Taujeerians covering his side of the field. “Mow ‘em down.”

Oh well, Team Voltron couldn’t win every battle that day. They introduced their opponents to the concept of the high five when they congratulated them on thoroughly walloping the humans. Although Lance did manage pull off a pretty sweet couple of **_drovits_** with his fancy footwork that had even the usually dismissive Pidge politely applauding him as he took a bow...then a ball to the side of his head fired by the sneaky Green Paladin. Darn her rocket foot!

Keith and Pidge laughed so hard they doubled over, arms over their stomachs as the Blue Paladin grumbled good naturedly and rubbed his noggin. Whatever, they all deserved a couple of laughs and if one or two of them were at Lance’s expense over space soccer, he didn’t really care. Not today. 

Today was an awesome day!

“Guys! Guys!” Hunk yelled excitedly, waving his arm at his friends after they finished high fiving everyone. The paused picking up their discarded pieces of Paladin armor from where they’d tossed them on the sidelines. “Sroji was just telling me everyone’s going to a club in few doboshes!”

“Club?” Pidge responded dumbly.

“CLUB!” Lance cheered. “Finally, a planet with a party scene! Wait wait wait! Hunk, please tell me they mean a club like for dancing and stuff and not some other extremely disappointing alien thing?” He gave his friend a beseeching look, hands dramatically clasped under his chin.

“Turns out social hotspots with music are universal!” Hunk nodded, bright white teeth gleaming as he grinned at the others.

“YESSSSS!” Lance punched the air.

And now it was gonna be an awesome night!

At least until Shiro’s voice piped up from the helmet under Pidge’s arm. Even Keith groaned along with the others as the Green Paladin made a face and put her helmet on to talk to “dad.”

“Hey, Shiro!” She started walking fast, following the Olkari teens who were steering them into what was apparently the nightlife district of the capital, the others hot on her heels.

“Yeah, we’re all together. Oh, no, we already ate, and now we’re getting a tour from some locals. Yeah, Keith’s here too! Say hi, Keith!”

“Hi, Keith,” the Blade deadpanned as he leaned down to speak near her helmet’s transmitter. 

Lance sniggered. Keith was funny, usually when he didn’t intend to be, but that was a classic. Under all that seriousness and sometimes barely tamped down violence Keith was an amusing guy. Lance remembered the time Allura cuffed them altogether as some sort of weird Altean bonding exercise, and Keith, to the Blue Paladin’s utter shock, had gotten super into the food fight. And not just in his insanely competitive way.

Well, Lance was the one who’d been insanely competitive. Keith had just been stupid good at most things and made the Blue Paladin feel like he had to play catch up.

Wuh-oh, downer thoughts. Who invited you? Shoo.

Anyway, Keith was funny. 

Darnit, the guy had way too many positive attributes!

Lance was tempted to pick through his brain to find some annoying flaws to distract himself. That task used to be a lot easier before they became friends. Constantly making fun of Keith’s hair was low-hanging fruit. And not getting the Voltron chant was just sad. 

Pidge continued to chatter with Shiro as they walked. “You and Allura and Coran should try the food in the plaza. I swear, there’s this one buggy thing that really does taste like chick- oh we’ll be back later. Dunno, a few vargas.”

Lance did blah blah blah with one hand while he laid an index finger over his nose, miming Shiro’s scar. 

Keith poked him. “Takes one to know one.” 

Lance gasped and flinched away dramatically, a hand over his sensitive side and a betrayed look on his face that had Keith chuckling. 

“You brute, I bruise like a peach and you know it. How dare!” That got another grin out of Keith, and Lance counted it as a win. He wondered how often the Red Paladin had occasion to smile with the Blades. Not nearly as much as with Team Voltron, he was positive of that. He doubted Kolivan had the facial muscles to crack anything more than a flat look of mild disapproval.

Hunk made “wrap it up!” motions at Pidge with increasingly frantic gestures, as the closer they got to the nightlife district the noisier the streets became. All of them were practically speed walking, as if the further they could get away from Shiro and the other adult-like beings the more likely they were to avoid getting called back to their teams.

“Yup, just hanging with the Olkari kids! Man, I really miss hanging out with people my own age. I mean besides you guys, of course,” Pidge said as she jogged with them, grinning as she laid on the guilt. “Makes me a little less homesick, y’know!” She gave a thumbs up to the guys as she tapped her com off and tucked her helmet back under her arm. “Works every time. He said we should stick together and have fun. No mention when we should come back.”

“Ha! Like the guardians of the universe have a curfew!” Lance jeered as they slowed when they reached a more crowded avenue. Multi-colored lights splashed across the vibrant facade of several establishments as music poured onto the street, or at least the Olkari version of music. 

“Oh wow, that almost sounds like EDM!”

Keith ducked his head, “Actually, I sort of have a curfew with the Blades.” The three Paladins staggered to a stop and stared at him, like they couldn’t believe Mr. Fly By the Seat of Your Skinny Jeans and Discipline Problem would actually abide by such a thing. 

“What?” the Blade huffed defensively as he crossed his arms over his chest. “We train really early when we’re not on missions. I need sleep.”

Lance snorted and dumped an arm over Keith’s shoulders, steering him into a building. “Look at you with your responsible priorities! Soon you’ll be a big Blade, won’t you?” At least Keith wasn’t working himself to exhaustion, Lance thought with a fleeting wash of relief. As much as he wasn’t the biggest fan of the Blades for snapping Keith up, he guessed they were okay if they made sure Mullet was getting his beauty rest. 

Not that he needed it. The guy was annoyingly, effortlessly better-than-okay looking, even with his hair. The mullet had kinda grown on Lance, thankfully not literally.

Uh, no, that kinda thinking was on the not-today list. Begone! Tonight was just about hanging and chilling! 

“Shut up,” Keith grumbled even as Lance watched him thumb off the communicator tucked into his hood. Cool! If Shiro wasn’t going to call them back to the Castle to be responsible Paladins then heck if Kolivan was going intrude on their downtime.

When they followed Sroji into a building Lance was ecstatic to see Hunk was right, sometimes dance clubs really were universal because if you looked past the aliens it almost felt like any party joint back on Earth. Albeit with some more interesting music that not only shook the floor and vibrated the air but seemed to create its own light show. All four Paladins’ necks craned up to watch the spectacle above the crowd.

Luminescent spikes and frenzied swirls of multicolored plasma arced over the crowd of young Olkari and a smattering of other species mixed in, all jumping and dancing wildly, throwing their hands and other upper extremities in the air in time with the music.

And like any club with a VIP section the Paladins, in their easily recognizable uniforms, snagged a pretty sweet corner on a dais with a couple of wild pieces of furniture that looked like metal but moved like liquid and felt like clouds under their butts when they sat. 

The handful of Olkari they’d played ball with earlier, and who lead them here, likewise pulled up liquid seats around what Lance guessed was a table to hang out. Hard to tell since it looked sorta like a meteor embedded in the floor, and it shimmered.

Keith sat to the side, watching his former teammates chatting animatedly with their hosts. Pidge, in particular, had a semi-circle of fellow tech-head aliens gathered around her. Hunk leaned over in fascination as an Olkari touched the side of his chair and, with what what looked like magic but was actually the alien’s technomancy skill, fluidly pulled up something that looked like a communicator with a screen from the seemingly molten metal of the Yellow Paladin’s chair.

Moments later Hunk exclaimed, “Shay!” with a happy note in his voice as the Balmeran girl’s face appeared on the small screen. “Hey everyone, it’s Shay!” 

The other Paladins and Blade called their greetings to the girl, and Lance glimpsed a change in the color of her green-grey face, something darker and more ruddy on her rocky cheeks. Hunk was definitely a little flushed.

The Blue Paladin might have been chatting animatedly with Shay over Hunk’s shoulder, then two of the Olkari sitting closest to him, but a portion of his attention was on the Blade. Keith sat at a little distance from the others and had his back to the wall, the exit in his line of sight.

Lance wondered if that was something the Blade of Marmora drilled into Keith or if he’d always been this hyper vigilant and the Blue Paladin, in his carelessness, hadn’t noticed it before. 

Lance knew, at least now he did, that he’d taken a lot about the Red Paladin for granted when they’d all practically lived in each other’s pockets in the Castle of Lions. It was a little late to wish to go back and spend less time bickering with him and more time trying to talk to him, find out what made him tick. 

What got him kicked out of the Garrison. Why’d he’d spent a year in the desert chasing strange signals on nothing but intuition and a hunch. How the heck he lived like that, all alone without going crazy, when Lance couldn’t tolerate even thirty tics thinking about his family back on earth without feeling like he couldn’t breath. 

But Lance hadn’t. He hadn’t asked. He hadn’t tried, not really, even when sometimes the lights in the Castle were low to emulate nighttime, and he’d wandered the corridors when he couldn’t sleep. More than once he’d found himself in front of the Red Paladin’s door and hadn’t knocked. 

Lance had been too busy trying, pointlessly, to be his rival. To prove to everyone, mostly himself, he was just as good or even just half as good as Keith. And when he finally became the guy’s friend, and he could’ve knocked, it too late to ask all those things. Keith wasn’t there anymore. 

The Red Paladin had left, on a strange new adventure, and that was saying something considering Lance piloted giant robot space cats. But Keith was here now, and he didn’t need to watch the door. They were among allies, Keith was among friends, and he needed to relax. That was the whole point of Lance’s resolution for today.

“C’mon, Keith, what’re you doing sitting way over there like you’re too good for us lousy Paladins!” he exclaimed with a dramatic wave, like the Blade was across the room or an ocean, rather than a few feet away. 

“M’not,” the Blade grumbled but scooted his chair thing closer anyway. Their legs brushed and Lance knocked his knee against the Blade’s in a nonverbal thanks for joining.

“Yeah, he’s the one who was about to take it to Haggar and bring down her ship! But that silver-haired buttmunch beat him to it!” Lance said with an expansive gesture in Keith’s direction, grinning at the Olkari teens gathered around them.

Okay, so the Blue Paladin had been freaked out, then steamed, at Keith’s cuckoo plan, but if he told it the right way, and left out how it hollowed out his gut to see that tiny ship blasting towards the battle cruiser’s impenetrable shield, it made for a pretty heroic sounding story.

The former Red Paladin squirmed when half a dozen Olkari faces turned in his direction. “Lance, cut it out,” he grumbled, although it didn’t carry much heat.

The Blue Paladin dumped an arm over the Blade’s shoulders, jostling him with a grin. So maybe he was being a little touchy with Keith, but c’mon the team was back together again! 

He **had** missed the guy, bad hair and paranoia and all. Beggar humans couldn’t be choosers when they only had a handful of their own species around, right? And Keith was an okay-ish human. 

Alright, fine, he was better than okay-ish, and the guy had almost atomized himself to try and save their lives. Lance was allowed to reach out and make sure his friend was actually there, still in one piece, and not smeared across a particle barrier.

“Oh, c’mon, buddy! I mean it was gutsy move, even if it was an epically dumb one. Just glad it didn’t work out. Who else would roll their eyes at my jokes?”

“Me,” Pidge piped up.

“Allura,” Hunk offered.

Keith smirked, “And Shiro. So really, you wouldn’t even miss me.”

Lance blew out an exaggerated breath. “Traitors. Every last one of you. Oh hey, drinks! Awesome!” Without bothering to inspect whatever was handed to him, not even to see if it was fit for human consumption, he took a hearty sip. 

“Tastes like…” he pursed his lips thoughtfully then licked them as his head cocked to one side and squinted the bright orange liquid. “...Kool-Aid. The purple kind.” He looked around at his friends’ stern expressions. “Oh come on, we just ate bugs on a stick and you’re worked over purple drank? Un-clech, the lot of you.” He pushed cups at his friends with an exasperated look.

They were among allies and, honestly, as weird as most alien food looked they’d yet to come across much that didn’t agree with their human systems. As long as they didn’t go eating wild flora generally they’d been okay with space food.

Except that one time with the M’zardrien pudding. Never. Again.

“Whadya guys call this stuff? It’s really good!” Lance inquired after his second drink. When Sroji shared something entirely unpronounceable he didn’t dare try to repeat it back, but to his surprise Keith nailed it on the first try.

“Is that a Galra thing? You bilingual now?”

Keith swiped the back of his hand along his upper lip. “I’ve always been bilingual, half Korean remember? But-” he shrugged “-the Blade have been teaching me some Galra, helps to be able to read their communications and tech.”

“Say something in Galra,” Lance prompted.

“ ** _Vrepit sa_** ,” Keith supplied with a smirk.

Lance rolled his eyes at him. “ ** _Tienes suerte eres lindo_**.” Ha, Keith wasn’t the only one who was multilingual. Or slick. 

“Did you just insult me?”

Lance waggled his hand with a mischievous look. Keith opened his mouth, probably to roast him back in Korean, but then the beat changed up to something infectious and booming, and Lance’s head snapped up. 

“Oh man, I love this song!”

“You’ve never heard this music before!” Pidge reminded him.

“Whatever, a sick bass drop is my jam! Last Paladin on the floor is a rotten egg!” 

Apparently they were all rotten eggs as Lance was left to his own devices on the dance floor for half a dozen songs, but he didn’t care. He couldn’t remember the last time he got to dance! 

Well, dance more than the little shuffling he did around his room as he cleaned and whistled along to Earth songs he could remember. If he’d known he was blasting into space in a robot Lion, Lance absolutely would have loaded his phone with tunes. As it was he’d been stuck for the last year with only memories of music. 

He didn’t care one bit his lame friends stayed at the table, at least not at first; Lance was over the moon to bounce to the music with the crowd and eventually start copying some of the interesting steps and fluid gestures a lot of the Olkari were performing. When his voice cracked cheering for another epic drop along with the rest of the dancers, he took a breather and semi-tangoed his way back to the table. 

The clunk of his chest plate hitting the table had the three humans staring up at him. “What? It’s hot on the dance floor, and not just because I’m totally tearing it up out there!” He gave them all a confident smirk. He might not be the smartest Paladin or the best fighter or leadership material, but he absolutely knew how to jam. And he was parched!

He plucked Keith’s drink out of his hand and tipped it back. “Thanks, buddy. You guys should totally come rock out. When was the last time any of you really cut loose?” He dropped his back plate too, then wiggled off his bicep guards and gauntlets before sitting to unlatch his belt and leg armor.

“Dude, what are you doing?” Hunk inquired, brows raised.

“I’m hot!”

Keith muttered something, but it was lost to the increasingly loud noise of the club. 

“Hey, the armor looks cool and is great for a fight and all, but it’s totally killing me. I can’t bust out my best moves!” Lance grinned at the table. “Get ready for the old razzle dazzle.”

“You just wanted to strip,” Pidge snipped, but she was smiling at him, the Blue Paladin’s good mood contagious.

The tanned teen stood up, down to his inky skinsuit and boots, everything else piled next to his chair. “Moi?” He put a hand on his chest in mock indignation. “I’m wearing pretty much the same thing as this guy!” He gestured to the short Blade, sitting there in his own skin tight, dark environmental suit. Alright, Keith had a chest plate on, but that was about it.

Okay, so maybe Lance wasn’t the biggest fan of the Blade of Marmora for snatching away the Red Paladin, but he had to admit they had style. Keith looked pretty cool in his Blade gear. When he pulled his up hood and face shield he totally had this cool space ninja assassin thing going on. Although the Blue Paladin wasn’t entirely sure if the tightness of the suit was necessary he wasn’t gonna complain. It made Keith look slick, dangerous. 

Not that Lance checked him out. Nope, no way. At least not in an obvious way anyone could see. He was subtle, yeah.

It was just a really good look. Showcased that even though he was a bit of a shorty, Keith was all taut muscle and compact strength. Sometimes Lance felt a little terrified of how strong Keith was, how vicious a fighter. He’d watched him mow down a dozen Galra drones with his sword and hardly break a sweat. The Blue Paladin had always been impressed at how focused and deadly Keith could be when he wanted. 

Maybe sorta excited by it. Keith looked especially lethal in his Blade suit, and it kinda did it for the Blue Paladin.

Did it make Lance kinda weird to think like that? Didn’t he have enough danger in his life that was actually, y’know, **dangerous** in the life-ending sort of way without eyeballing the semi-murderous Blade when he was whipping his sword around and carving up enemies?

Ah, okay, not entirely pure thoughts, not now! Beat it. 

Time to do something else besides think about how tight Keith’s stupid suit was.

“C’mon, gremlin! Not taking no for an answer!” And Lance wasn’t as his hand shot out to grab one of Pidge’s and summarily dragged her from her chair and away from her tech-centric admirers. His other hand flicked Hunk in the ear as he leaned over his shoulder. “Shay, I promise he’ll call you back in a varga! But I need Hunk for a party related emergency, it’s critical.” He tugged on Keith’s hood as he beamed at the Balmaran girl, no one was skipping out!

Hunk acted like he was going to swat him off but Shay’s sweet voice excused him from their conversation, and he had no reason not to follow his best bud. The Yellow Paladin did, however, pause by the Blade’s chair. “Not getting out of this one, Keith, might as well surrender now or I’m dragging you out there by your ankles.”

To Lance’s surprise Keith didn’t put up a fight, not much of one beyond rolling his eyes a little as he pushed out of his chair with a little huff. Sweet! This should be hilarious, if nothing else. 

As soon as they carved out a little space for themselves in the crowd, Lance grabbed Pidge and, with a grin and a waggle of his eyebrows, shot their clasped hands out and tangoed them across the floor, the Green Paladin’s laugh an awesome counterpoint to the music, which was 100% the wrong kind for these sort of dance moves. 

But it was fun! Lance couldn’t remember the last time Pidge laughed; he could probably count them on one hand and nearly all of them since her brother Matt had been found. 

“Lance, you’re such a ham!” she shouted over the din; thankfully there was nothing but humor in her voice.

“Don’t hate! You’re just jealous of my sick moves!” Before she could voice another good natured insult he looped an arm around her back and dropped her into a over-the-top dip that made the smaller Paladin shriek in surprise as her short hair nearly brushed the floor.

“If you’re drop me I’m going to reprogram yo-” Her threat was cut off as the Blue Paladin hauled her upright again, her glasses now askew.

“It’s like you don’t trust me or something, Pidge!” Lance responded playfully as he twirled her before she had a chance to fully right herself.

“Hunk! Help!” the Green Paladin called with a laugh as she was swung around once more.

“No can do, Pidge!” Hunk chuckled from where he was fist pumping the air. “You’re in the hands of a master now! I know better than to interfere!” 

“Yeah! Besides the last time I did this with Hunk I definitely dropped him in the dip,” Lance laughed as he finally released the Green Paladin who bounced out of his range but didn’t abandon him entirely. The three Paladins grinned at each other as they played up their sillier dance moves. 

The sprinkler, hands ticing through the air in front of them. The shopping cart! The white boy overbite! The whatever the heck it was Hunk was doing! Oh! The lawnmower! 

Lance bounced on the balls of his feet with his friends, laughing as each of the Paladins knocked into each other, jeered and joked as they dug up as many corny dances as they could think of.

The butter churn! Roll those dice! The Running Man!

Ok, Hunk was actually really good at that last one, and Lance wasn’t sure the last time he smiled so much his cheeks started to ache.

Of course, once in a while the Blue Paladin couldn’t resist the driving beat and stopped goofing around to just go with it. His head canted back when the rhythm went from a steady tempo to something more energetic, and if he closed his eyes he could imagine, for just a minute, he was back on Earth. 

That the press of bodies around his was entirely human, the heat rising from the dance floor blended into the mugginess of a Havana night, and the exultant alien voices melding together under the music were as melodious as Spanish.

Dang, he’d missed dancing, just cutting loose and letting it all go, all that stress and worry and freaking out over evil empires trying to kill you when you’re not even old enough to get a beer on Earth. 

Nope! Not thinking about that tonight, Lance resolved again as he tossed his hands up over his head, weaving patterns in the air as luminescent plasma arced over the crowd and seemed to stain his fingers with its light.

All the tension he’d carried for days, weeks, heck the last year, started to drain out of him with every bounce of the beat, every rock of his torso. He didn’t know what instruments made this music, but he resolved to get his hands on some downloads as his shoulders rolled back, slim hips snaking right behind them in a serpentine. 

Yeah, this was exactly what he needed. 

Even the perspiration rolling down the back of his neck, creeping under his skinsuit, was welcome, different from the panicky flop sweat that came from being chased by Galra death squads. Rather than making him feel gross, something about working up a good old-fashioned sweat from dancing his butt off felt purifying, and the anxiety inducing worry over the war melted away. 

Every nagging, ugly thread of self-doubt about his place with Voltron was drowned under the swelling tide of music and motion. Every guilty, selfish thought about the Red Paladin was swept away in the crush of bodies.

Almost. 

Lance’s eyes flickered open, he’d not even realized he’d closed them, and they landed on the Blade. Shockingly, Keith hadn’t slunk away the moment they took their eyes off him. Quite the opposite actually, he was right there in the thick of it with the Paladins, shaggy hair falling in his face as he moved. Unlike Lance, whose feet unconsciously sought out intricate patterns across the floor, weaving his body around the music, Keith danced like he fought: head on, hard, all sharp edges and coiled strength, powering through the tempo.

There was nothing superfluous in the way Keith moved, Lance thought as his mouth suddenly went dry. Every move the Blade made was controlled, an economy of motion in the way his head nodded to the beat in perfect counterpoint to rock of his torso. Keith’s floppy hair fell into his pale face on the downbeat then whipped away as his head rocked back again and jeweled lights spilled over it, painting him red, blue, purple. 

Lance’s own lanky arms twisted up over his head, highlighted by prismatic plasma swirling above them. Where the Blue Paladin was long lines, all lithe torso and sinuous limbs, the Blade was more compact, hard muscles rounding out his biceps and thighs as they tensed then uncoiled in time with the music. Lance more than appreciated the dichotomy between them.

Keith punched the air in a moment of rare abandon and a wide white smile split his face when music spiralled and built, winding up the tension, the excitement of the crowd soaring higher, higher still. 

They were all caught up in it. Lance was absolutely enthralled watching his former teammate move. He’d thought it would be funny, stick-in-the-mud Keith doing an awkward side to side shuffle maybe; he hadn’t expected the Blade to throw himself into it so unselfconsciously.

But wasn’t that always the way the Red Paladin had been, diving headfirst into nearly everything? When Keith found his place, his niche, his groove, he was seamless, sharp and efficient as the knife tucked to the base of his spine. 

A spine that curved then bowed in sharp arches as the Blue Paladin watched; really, Lance couldn’t tear his eyes away.

The music roared in the Blue Paladin’s head, blasted over them, and the crowd worked itself up to a near frenzy, all the frantic energy of the day’s hectic battle transformed into something headier, intoxicating. Lance felt it, he reveled in it as much as he soaked up watching the Red Paladin throw himself into the music as energetically as he ever flung himself into a fight.

When the drop came, booming and undeniable, the Blade’s head snapped back and dark hair, now damp with sweat, streamed back from his face. Keith’s mouth opened as he spun to shout something at the Paladins, his face carrying an unfamiliar expression of unrestrained joy.

And Lance was only human.

It really, really, REALLY wasn’t his fault a bolt of undiluted lust shot through him without his permission. He was 18 and had been stuck in space for over a year with only his right hand to keep him company. And Keith had to go and be hot. And brave and sometimes a little funny. Did he mention hot, like stupidly so? 

So really, it wasn’t Lance’s fault at all he was totally ogling the former Red Paladin. 

This was all Keith’s fault, as usual. 

The stupid hot jerk.

Ugh, so hot.

Unfortunately, in the middle of Lance’s totally silent and entirely internal crisis, the Blade’s eyes caught his and, yeah, there was no way Keith missed the way the Blue Paladin was staring at him. Lance might be a lot of things, overconfident, overcompensating, loud, but he wasn’t dumb, and he was painfully aware he was transparent as scultrite. 

Now would an excellent time for Lance to die of mortification because he was 100% sure he’d just been caught drooling. Just drop dead right here on the dance floor. That would be perfect.

Lance McClain, dead at 18 due to terminal bisexuality. What a headstone.

*********************************************************************************************************

A year ago Lance soundly showing up Keith in anything, much less something as trivial as a ball game among aliens, would have resulted in vargas, quintents of teasing and in-your-face-posturing towards the Red Paladin. And he wouldn’t have laughed off his own embarrassing moment of taking an unexpected ball to the head as easily.

Keith didn’t mind he wasn’t the best at soccer, or even all that good; they were having fun, the sort of fun he’d not had since long before he left earth. The Blade knew so much time fighting for your life and the lives of countless unknown beings tended to put such small things into perspective. 

It was such a little thing, watching Pidge slide into an Olkari to steal the ball, Hunk laughing as he was blocked by a Taujeerian much larger than himself. If it weren’t for their opponents’ strange appearance and the orange sky over their heads, Keith could have almost mistaken this for a lazy Saturday pickup game on earth.

Not that he’d ever played those. He’d watched sometimes, lingering on the edge of a park by the group home, the Garrison sports fields, wondering why it was so easy for some people to do this.

Interact. 

Jog up to strangers and ask if you could join, be their friend within the hour, bonding over grass stained knees and breathless replays of the highlights.

He’d watched instead; Keith was good at that. Studying people from a distance, keeping them more than arm’s length away. He could tell by the way people moved around each other if they were simply being polite or were truly friendly, if people were actual friends, if they were family, or something else. 

Outwardly the Blade knew all the signs, recognized how far apart others stood from him and what it meant. That he was on the outside, exactly where he’d placed himself, where it was safe and he didn’t have to worry about how it would feel when they left.

He used to be like that. 

Now, he watched with a new gaze, as Pidge’s hand sailed out to slap his when they crossed each other on the field as Keith dribbled the ball quickly. When his shot missed by a huge margin, the disappointed groans of his teammate were light, because what’s a missed **_drovit_** in the grand scheme of things when there was a real war over the horizon they were neck deep in every other day, except today.

“Yo, Two Left Feet, get on defense!” Lance yelled as he raced past, tan fingers brushing over Keith’s shoulder as he turned him in the right direction.

The Blade guarded his section of the field with only half as much ferocity as he showed in battle, keeping the other team's scoring to a minimum. He might have held them to zero except winning didn’t really matter, no one’s life hung in the balance. This world, these people wouldn’t end over this one skirmish.

And he might have been watching the other end of the field more carefully than his own and Lance’s long legs eating up meters with each easy, loping stride, his grin easy and free as he fired a rocket off his left foot to hit the column and score. The ball rebounded back at the Blue Paladin so quickly he scored again after some fancy footwork around Olkari and Taujeerian defenders.

The Blue Paladin was all long limbs and loose smiles, liquid in the way he moved around so many obstacles, a river slipping over stones, wending its way through a landscape. Keith knew that was only one side to Lance, before he turned on a dime and his grin sharpened. 

Then Blue Paladin became a tsunami and crashed over, through anything in his path. Lance carved through bedrock, scraped out valleys, canyons through Keith’s previously prickly reserve, then bridged the distance until they were grinning and panting breathless as they high fived each other then Pidge and Hunk. 

It didn’t matter they lost the game, the really important things were well and truly won today.

Keith flopped back on the prickly orange grass of Olkarion as the other players chattered around him, strange inflections and wondrous accents flowing over the Blade as he closed his eyes and just…

_Breathed…_

For a moment he felt his age, and not the hundred years he sometimes swore he was because what 19 year old had ever dealt with this much before? Well, what Earthling anyway, since beyond the beautiful, ignorant, blue bubble around Earth there were so many beings across the universe who’d suffered much more than him for far longer.

He dragged gloved fingers over his face, as though to claw away those thoughts. He’d had them long enough, hanging over his head, coloring every moment of his life since he’d been launched into space with the Blue Lion. If the universe, and his friends, had decided today was the one day they had to themselves, to be whatever passed for normal anyway, Keith had to make it work.

It was easier to focus on something besides the jumble in his own head. The Paladins’ voices carried, as they always did, cutting through space and across open fields and echoing down quiet Castle corridors.

“YESSSSS!” Whatever it was that had gotten Lance so excited, Keith was intrigued. Of course it wasn’t that hard to get the Blue Paladin pumped up, but the Blade cracked an eye anyway to find his teammate leaning over him. 

“Nuh uh, no napping Keith! We got a party to get to!” When Lance leaned down the Blade’s hand easily met his to be hauled to his feet. So much had changed. When they first met they couldn’t stand to be in the same room, always sniping at each other, as though venting their anger on each other would make becoming responsible for the universe less terrifying.

Now, they fell naturally into step as they followed their guides, dogging Pidge as she neatly side-stepped Shiro so they could roam free for the rest of the night. When Keith’s deadpan response to Shiro’s voice on the com squeezed a laugh out of the Blue Paladin’s, the Blade shook his head at how far they’d come. The prod to Lance’s side was a far cry from the sharp punches they’d used to trade.

“I bruise like a peach!” the tanned teen gasped dramatically and shimmied from Keith’s touch with a sinuous move that had the Blade’s eyes following like a laser sight. 

He knew Lance did, they all did to be honest, given the beatings they took on a regular basis. Keith ignored his, the pooled blood under his skin, red scrapes along his side from Galra claws, laser fire; it was a price he readily paid over and over. He’d grown up in the fight, this was just a bigger battlefield to him.

Not that Lance was soft, he couldn’t be, none of them were since this all began, but he wasn’t like The Blade either. The Blue Paladin wasn’t a product of a broken home, a broken life, forced to become hard so he couldn’t be ground down by harsh reality. 

But Lance wasn’t easily breakable, because he had something, someone, to fight for. His family, sisters, brothers, parents. Real, tangible lives he couldn’t bear to lose. So he tooks the same hits as Keith, Shiro, all of them, and he became stronger. When Lance prodded at his injuries with a hiss or pouted over the bruises he wasn’t weak; he chose to take the hits so the people he cared about didn’t have to. But they still hurt and the Blue Paladin never pretended they didn’t. He was so very genuine in everything, Keith had come to realize.

The Blade hadn’t noticed the bright flashes of the vibrant avenue or the increased noise around them, he’d been too busy walking in lock step with the Blue Paladin, listening to Pidge unleash a masterful guilt trip on Shiro. She was always impressive but times like this, when it was clear she had Keith’s best friend, practically a brother, wrapped effortlessly around her green finger, she was a little terrifying.

“Works every time,” she said smugly as she tucked her helmet back under her arm. “No mention when we had to come back.” Pidge grinned. Scratch that, very terrifying.

“Bah! Like the guardians of the universe have a curfew!” Lance sneered playfully, puffing out his chest as they followed their Olkari guides through the increasing crowd.

“I sort of….have a curfew with the Blades,” Keith admitted, sliding a look at the Paladins. Their reaction was pretty memorable, mouths actually hanging open. Not that he could blame them. So many nights on the Castle he’d been unable to sleep, tired of staring at his featureless ceiling as anxious thoughts ground nastily through his head like rusty cogs, so he’d go to the training arena. 

All the Paladins, Allura, Coran, had found him in there at all hours, either because they were having one of those nights where sleep was as unreachable as Earth or Altea, or they stumbled across him in the morning, pathetically leaning in a corner after having battled gladiator bots until sheer physical exhaustion overtook him and he slept on the floor.

But things changed. He’d changed. Although the Blades weren’t his family they were calming to him. Something about the regimented order or their bases, ships, the expectations of him as a one of their many weapons, it clarified things. Sleep came easier when he didn’t have to call the shots the next day, the pressure off. Also, Marmoran training was no joke, Allura could learn a thing or two.

Actually, no, she shouldn’t, poor Hunk might not survive. Even Shiro would probably bitch.

“What?” the Blade huffed at the look Lance gave him, like he’d said something astoundingly weird. He never used to feel embarrassed around the Blue Paladin. If anything he might’ve felt embarrassed **for** Lance, back when Keith though he was a complete tool. “We train really early when we’re not on missions. I need sleep.”

The long line of heat that spread over his shoulder as Lance laid his arm there made the Blade warm in a way that had little to do with the physical. “Look at you being so responsible,” Lance teased. “Gonna be a big Blade soon, aren’t you?” 

“Shut up,” Keith muttered, but he didn’t mean it. Soon enough it would be quiet again, back with the Blades, he wanted to soak up the boisterous Paladin as much as possible before that happened. He slipped his fingers into his hood to turn off his communicator. Kollivan could chastise him tomorrow if he tried and failed to reach Keith. 

It was anything but quiet here, the music unlike anything he’d ever heard but it was grounded in a deep throbbing bass rumble that reverberated in his chest and made his head nod unconsciously as they squeezed through the crowd to a raised dais where the heroes of the day sat with a congregation of Olkari. Some of them the ones they’d played ball with earlier today, others had trickled over once they spied the Paladin’s unmistakable, bright uniforms. 

Usually the Blade loathed crowds, felt hemmed in, trapped, and the instinct was still there, too long ingrained to be quelled entirely. But it was easier know they were among friends, ecstatic aliens whose only motive tonight was to enjoy surviving the battle, liberating other sectors, just living without the pall of war hanging over their heads for one day. 

It didn’t stop Keith from automatically angling his strange metal chair so his back was to the closest wall and the exit in his sightline.

The Blade didn’t join in the conversation the bubbled around him, he rarely did if there were beings there he didn’t know, even if the Olkari were incredibly welcoming. Keith was content to watch, to listen to the easy banter between Pidge and her fellow technomancers, even if the chatter flew over his head as they delved into the intricacies of their science and craft. 

Keith rested his chin in his hand as he watched Hunk’s usually gentle expression soften further when one of the locals opened up a comm-line to the Balmaran girl.

Even in a time of war, across incalculable distance and even greater odds, different species, different solar systems, people somehow managed to find each other, find room in their hearts for another, carve out space in their lives to accommodate the shape of another being.

It was clear, even if Hunk denied Shay was his girlfriend, the emotions were there. Even the Blade, as closed off as he usually was from his own feelings, knew affection when he saw it. He recognized it because he saw it in so many others and so little of it in or around himself, at least until recently. 

It made him happy for the Yellow Paladin and covetous. Some people, kind, open people made these connections naturally, easily, and it was something Keith envied. Shay may not be human, but she was kind, strong, determined. All the best attributes any Earthling could hope to possess.

It hadn’t been easy to see past his fear, his frustration, to see, much less acknowledge things in himself, emotions, how he interacted with others shifting. This foreign feeling when Keith looked at the Blue Paladin. 

The Blade had ignored it, denied it, for a while before he had to admit he was stupid. No one should be so afraid to care for someone. Everyday people did it, often even after losing someone they opened themselves up, allowed themselves to feel again. 

Even if it was scary, they weren’t scared.

But Keith had been afraid. 

He’d always been like this because they left, they always left. 

His mother. Father. Then Shiro, assumed dead after Kerberos, then gone again after wrenching the Lion finally free of Zarkon’s influence. It was why Keith held back, stamped down his interest, the jealous emotions that tangled inside him when he watched Lance flirt with aliens, Allura, throw himself so easily onto Hunk’s legs after a long day of training, drape himself playfully over Pidge’s slight back until she crumpled under his weight, laughing.

But Keith wasn’t afraid now of being left behind, because even if he were solar systems away he knew he could always return to the Castle, to Paladins, to Shiro, Lance. They would always be home, no matter where in the galaxy they were. And they would take him back over and over again. 

The Blade’s violet eyes trailed over the Blue Paladin as he laughed and leaned forward to listen to something one of the Olkari said, his expression attentive and beautiful.

The Blade had done his duty, been responsible, given up what he wanted for what he knew was needed, what was best. Spent the last months acknowledging his weaknesses, refining his strengths, and learning the anger in him could be channeled, honed to make him better. As a fighter, as a person, when he learned how to finally let go of some of it. 

Cast it out into the cosmos like stardust.

For all of that, for everything he’d done, witnessed, suffered, and accepted Keith gave himself permission tonight not to care about the greater good or what was best for the universe over his own small, narrow wants. 

Because the best was right there in front of him when Lance scolded, “Keith! What’re you doing sitting way over there like you’re too good for us lousy Paladins!”

“I’m not,” he murmured as he pulled his chair in, definitely closer than was merited to join the conversation so his knee bumped the Blue Paladin’s.

“Yeah, he’s the one who was about to take it to Haggar and bring down her ship.” The pleased smirk directed at him was in direct opposition to the irate punch his actions merited vargas earlier. But the Blade would take it, he’d take any scrap thrown at him today and hoard it so when he left again he’d have something to hang onto, keep him company when the nights were whisper quiet again and his days monochrome.

“Cut it out, Lance." The smile pulling at the corner of his mouth betrayed any irritation his tone might’ve held.

“Oh, c’mon, man! I mean it was ballsy move, even if it was an epically stupid one. I’m just relieved didn’t work out.” Keith nearly gave in to the urge to cant his head into Lance’s shoulder when the Blue Paladin once again dropped his arm over the Blade. 

What had it been? Three? Four times? More? Keith thought he might be able to the count the number Lance had done this before he left using just 2 fingers...the Blue Paladin had changed. 

Or maybe he hadn’t, Keith had. Or they had.

It wasn’t a bad different, if anything it gave the Blade a flicker of hope, as much as he disliked careless optimism because it rarely worked out for him. It might’ve been easier to fan it to a proper flame if Lance clarified things and shot a wink or his silly finger guns at the Blade like he usually did when flirting. Those were the signs Keith knew, recognized easily. He didn’t know what this was, Lance leaning into him as his lips slipped over the edge of a cup as he sculled an alien drink, the column of his throat stretched and tempting.

But he desperately wanted to know.

“What’s this stuff called? It’s really good!” The Blue Paladin gestured with his glass for it to be refilled, his lean pulling the Blade forward a few inches with him. His face scrunched up in confusion when the name was relayed.

“It’s **_r’thrybek_**.” Keith enunciated easily.

Lance’s gaze skewed in his direction again, one eyebrow arching up. “Is that Galra? Are you bilingual now?”

“Half-Korean, always been bilingual, well trilingual now the Blade are teaching me Galra. It really helps to be able to read their communications and tech.” He shrugged, all the Paladins should work on learning it, honestly. Their universal translators were a godsend for conversation, but he’d lost count of the times Voltron’s Paladins had been stymied by Galra interface boards without Pidge at their side to hack them. 

He and Lance had struggled to find a way to close the bomb bay doors on Balmera, to seal the fighters in, until Keith gave into a hunch, probably a Galra instinct he figured with hindsight, to lay his hand over a strange symbol on the screen. 

That the unit responded to him at all should have been his first clue, as they already knew most Galra technology only responded to the species’ genetic markers or quintessence signatures, like Shiro’s hand. Well, it came in handy now; he’d been interfacing with then crippling Galra operating systems for months now, usually with a bomb much less elegant than Pidge’s smooth sabotage.

“Say something in Galra!”

“ ** _Vrepit sa_** ,” the Blade supplied with a chuckle.

The Blue Paladin huffed and knocked his knee against Keith’s. “ ** _Tienes suerte eres lindo_**.” 

Lance so rarely spoke in his first language, the Blade had nearly forgotten how smoothly it flowed, rolling like liquid off his tongue.

Shit, it was hot.

“Did...did you insult me?” Keith queried at the same time he hoped the relative dimness of their corner of the club hid the heat he felt crawl up his face

Today was definitely one for rash decisions as the Blade leaned in incrementally, convinced he was about to do something breathtakingly stupid like punch Lance in the mouth. With his mouth. He wanted to sip Spanish from Lance’s lips, preferably flavored with moans.

“Oh man, I love this song!” the Blue Paladin’s head snapped up to look over the club floor where countless aliens went wild as the beat changed and a resonating bass line practically made the place vibrate.

“You’ve never heard this before, dingus,” Pidge snarked with a smile.

“Pffffft, a sick bass drop is my jam! Last Paladin on the floor is a rotten egg!” Before the Blade could move that line of warmth over his shoulders was gone, and Lance was throwing himself into the thick of the crowd with as much exuberance as he ever showed flying his Lions. Keith watched the Blue Paladin, easy to spot in the crown in his bright white uniform and a head over many of the other dancers.

The tanned teen, at first glance, might appear gangly, long limbed, his excitable personality giving the impression of a goofy teen. He probably had been once, before the Garrison, Voltron, everything. That was someone Keith never met, hardly knew, although those parts of the Blue Paladin not ground down by the war still showed themselves in how he smiled, sharp and gleaming, the way he threw his hands into the air and cheered like this was just another weekend night on Earth, instead of a...who knew what day or even month it was...on the other side of the galaxy. 

“Oh man, you got it bad, huh?”

The Blade blinked and looked to his right. Hunk was holding the comm unit out in one hand for Pidge to speak to Shay, but his attention was on Keith.

“What?”

The Yellow Paladin shared a sympathetic smile. “C’mon, Keith, I’m not blind. You're still hung up on Lance, right ?”

The Blade flung himself back in his seat, as though that would distance him from Hunk’s unfortunately piercing observation. “I wasn’t...m’not!” It was second nature to lie to himself, especially about this, doubly so to others. 

This was...private, and not something he shared. Not even with Shiro, from whom he knew he’d probably get a lecture about complicating an already crazy situation with Voltron unnecessarily, be advised to stick a pin in his crush until they got back to Earth.

The Blade knew they may never get back to Earth or, if they did, they wouldn’t stay long. They belonged in space, defending the universe. Together. 

The level look Hunk spared him made it clear the Paladin wasn’t moved in his opinion one iota by the Blade’s denial. “If it helps he complained more about your being gone than he ever did about you being here.” Hunk flushed, immediately aware that could have been phrased better based on Keith’s pinched expression.

“C’mon, Keith, you know what I mean.”

“No. I really don’t,” the Blade responded flatly, crossing his arms over his chest plate.

“Lance is gonna kill me for spilling the beans, but he missed you, man.”

“Yeah,” Keith said with a snort. “I gathered as much when he punched me in the solar plexus.” It was one thing for the Blade to be incredibly tempted by his own wants; it was something entirely else to get his hopes up because someone confirmed he wasn’t imaging the distinct, wanting vibe between himself and the Blue Paladin.

“No. He REALLY misses you. Like, he talks about you all the time, and it’s with that gross tone he used to use when talking about Allura.”

The Blade scowled and slouched in his Chair. “I don’t wanna talk about it, Hunk.” 

“Duh, when do you ever want to talk about stuff? But I’m serious, even though he’s never outright said it, Lance is into you.”

“.........hmpf.” The sound might have been dismissive, but Keith wasn’t. He’d kept this tucked deep inside for so long and now, with every word from Hunk, it was beating at the back of his ribs like a frantic bird battering itself against its cage.

The clatter of a piece of the Blue Paladin’s armor landing on their table jerked Keith and Hunks’s attention away from the touchy topic.

“What the quiznak, Lance!” Pidge scolded as she shoved the communicator back at Hunk and rescued her drink from toppling onto her legs.

“Ugh, it’s so hot on the dance floor, but I’m totally tearing it up out there!” Before Keith could comment on Lance’s alleged dance moves...which were totally not bad, his own drink was plucked from his hand by the Blue Paladin, who chugged it then licked his lips with a sigh.

“Thanks, buddy!” He shoved the nearly empty cup back into the blinking Blade’s hand as he proceeded to drop more of his armor into a pile then flung himself into the chair next to Keith, knees knocking against each other’s, as he wrestled off his leg armor.

“What are you doing?” Hunk queried with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m hot!”

“Yeah, y’are,” Keith mumbled before he shoved his face into his nearly empty cup in a poorly planned attempt to drown himself. And if he poked his tongue out to flick at the rim where Lance had drunk that was...ok, that was just pathetic, no denying it.

“Huh?” 

The Blade shrugged and pretended to find something on the floor incredibly interesting.

“Hey, the armor looks cool, but it’s killing me. I can’t bust out my best moves!” Lance laughed.

“You just wanted to strip,” Pidge snipped

The Blue Paladin stood up, down to his inky skinsuit, all his armor piled next to his chair. 

Thank quiznak he wasn’t facing Keith, whose face flushed a deeper pink because holy shit how did he never notice before how freaking sexy the Paladin skinsuits were when they weren’t covered in armor?! The Blue Paladin’s long torso and longer legs looked like they’d been dipped in ebony ink, every sharp angle and subtle curve tightly, lovingly hugged by the slick space material.

Inches from Keith’s face. 

Zarkon, kill him now. He was only so strong.

“Moi?” the Blue Paladin huffed dramatically, “I’m wearing the same thing as Keith!” He waved at the Blade, who continued to stare at the floor because there was no way he was getting involved, not when his rash impulses were daring him to say something embarassing or lurid regarding Lance’s current look.

A flurry of activity whirled around him that he studiously ignored in favor of closing his eyes and repeating the mantra Shiro taught him.

**_Patience yields focus._ **

**__**

**__**

**_Patience...yields...focus._ **

Lance’s fingers tugged on the back of his hood as he yanked Pidge out of her chair and past Keith. “C’mon, guys, not taking no for an answer!”

It only took a look from Hunk and the knowledge that he didn’t acede immediately Keith was in danger of being bodily hauled out of his chair, and terminally embarrassed by his friends, to get him moving. 

The floor was crowded but not in the way that made the Blade tense, on his guard, even if it took him a few moments to settle. They were celebrating, every being on this planet was, and the mood was palpable, filling the air as much as the multi-colored plasma arcing over their heads in time with the strange beat. 

Keith never thought about if he was a good dancer or not, not like he ever went to dances. But he knew his body, his reflexes, his limits in all ways, and he’d been known to rock out in private back on Earth. Fall Out Boy was good stuff, classic.

He missed music, he realized suddenly. A year without it, and until just now he’d not even noted its absence, swallowed up like nearly everything else by the silence he’d chosen to surround himself in the vacuum of space, with the Blade of Marmora

It was easy to remind himself, watching his friends fall over themselves laughing as they made up the silliest dance moves, that just for tonight the volume on his life was pumped up once more. The previously muted tones now riotous color blazing over the crowd of aliens moving, painting their faces in prisms, their limbs in streamers of iridescence.

Keith’s head bobbed down, dark hair falling into his eyes as he moved in counterpoint to the driving bass, so he closed them. Soaking up the sound, the sensation of a rhythm so intense it rattled through him, causing the hair on his arms to prickle under his suit. Flashes of light so bright they lit up the back of his eyelids as he flung his head back when the drop came. The slip and subtle jostle of bodies around his, not a single touch intended to inflict pain for once. The taste of salt when he licked sweat from his upper lip drove him on, and he shot a fist into the air.

They’d tried, Zarkon, Galra, Haggar, they’d all tried to hurt them, kill them, and failed again and again. He was alive, his friends, Lance, Shiro, they were still alive and thriving, fighting, winning, charging ahead. Kicking ass and taking names and saving countless worlds.

And they did it together, the seven of them. Humans, Alteans, a half-Galra orphan, they brought everyone together. Voltron, Blades, dozens and dozens of planets, all under one beautiful banner of promised freedom.

That feeling, one the Blade rarely indulged in, foreign as a newly discovered planet, exotic as the inhuman lithesome sway of the Olkari around them, surged up and manifested as a broad grin across his face. 

For once he was happy. 

For one night everything was perfect.

Keith spun to shout exactly that at his friends and it was met with matching grins and laughter, luminous emerald, saffron. Colors he couldn’t live without.

Azure.

That was the hue that always caught Keith’s eye and held it. Even in the changing bright spectrum of light pouring over them, that color always snagged him, dragged him in deep.

Tonight he didn’t want to turn his back on ocean deep eyes, pretend he preferred shallow waters, even shallower affectations. Act like he didn’t feel this heat and yearn for it to be returned. 

Tonight Keith wanted to dive, drown in the lust he saw in the gaze the Blue Paladin had just leveled at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next weekend is my birthday and I'll be going out of town for a long weekend to go to a Moulin Rouge style all-male burlesque club to celebrate, so no promises the next chapter will be up on time.
> 
> Depends on how much partying I do, I could get reckless like Keith!
> 
> Also I saw this fanart about Keith and had to throw a nod to it in here b/c it cracked me up:
> 
> https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f7/e8/65/f7e865a87f32f86dc3d9f78fb8ade4e0.jpg


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was always leading to this.
> 
> Also, sorry I didn't update last week, I went to DC for my birthday to a male burlesque show and came back with like...stripper cooties or something. Seriously, I have not been this sick in ages, ew.

Lance spun quickly away on the pretense of...doing anything but looking at Keith and focused on the music. If he just did that, just **that** , and nothing else he’d be able to chalk this up to one more in a long line of silly things he’d thought and done before his common sense and self-preservation instincts kicked in. 

No big, Keith was pretty clueless anyways about the social stuff. As long as all this stayed locked up inside Lance’s pretty head, all would be well.

That was his line and he was sticking to it! 

At least until he felt something sneak around his waist. 

Lance’s eyes widened as he looked down.

Hands. 

There were hands resting on his hips. 

Gloved hands. 

Keith hands. 

And there was a Keith body reaaaally close to his back, like...plastered against it.

“Uhhhhhey, buddy, whatcha doing?” Oh quiznak, Lance’s voice hadn’t cracked like that since he was 13. 

The Red Paladin’s voice floated over his shoulder, soft, and really flipping close close to his ear. “Dancing, what does it look like?”

Lance shivered.

Okay...okay so..okay...alright. 

Keith was kinda doing what he said. He was moving in time to the music, keeping the beat and everything, so technically he was dancing. But why was he doing it right up against Lance’s-

...oh.

 **OH**.

“...oh,” the Blue Paladin replied dumbly. Thank quiznak his body was a little slow to catch up to his brain and hadn’t stopped moving. The music’s bounce gave the Blue Paladin an excuse to loosely nod his head, hands spiralling up again as the music soared, while his brain rebooted after the shocking revelation of Keith A) having some sick hip swivels and B) not being so completely clueless that was no way he couldn’t possibly miss that what he was doing was giving Lance some seriously dirty bad thoughts and a big old bo-

Lance.exe came back online.

Keith knew exactly what he was doing

He was totally doing it on purpose! 

And to Lance! 

Every single thing Lance spent the day telling himself about behaving around Keith, keeping his naughty thoughts and stupid little crush in check, went right out the flipping airlock.

Holy crow, this was the best day **EVER**!

If he was dreaming, like one of those weird healing pod dreams where everything felt slightly surreal but at the same time incredibly vivid, Lance hoped he never woke up.

Thankfully, this was the one reality where Lance actually had a smooth response and didn’t do something mortifying like squeak instead. Thank you, Slav.

“You call that dancing?” the Blue Paladin chuckled as he glanced over his shoulder, 

Fortunately, he was young and super healthy otherwise the look he caught in Keith’s violet eyes would’ve given him a complete aneurysm. It was a minor miracle Lance didn’t stroke out, so he was able to crane his neck around until their noses almost brushed. 

If there was one good thing to come out of this whole intergalactic war it was that a year of fighting the Galra had given the Blue Paladin some major guts, otherwise he would’ve just gaped at Keith’s heated expression instead of saying, “Kinda think you need some lessons.” 

Before Keith could reply one of Lance’s hands came up to bravely snake behind the Blade’s head and twist into that shockingly, but actually not all that surprisingly, soft hair. Then Lance’s hips followed the downswing of the music and rocked back in an unmistakable **grind**. 

Lance McClain was nothing if not quick on the uptake when someone was flirting with him! 

Ok, so he didn’t expect in a thousand deca-phoebs Keith would be the one doing it. Hoped yes, maybe even prayed yes, expected **never**. But apparently the universe had finally decided the Blue Paladin deserved a big old thank you for being awesome.

“...oh,” the Blade responded and then, oh wow, then those stupid long eyelashes no dude should have fluttered and his dark head tipped back at the tug of the Lance’s fingers as he coaxed them back into the rhythm that had been momentarily interrupted. 

Awesome, Lance wasn’t the only one struck kind dumb tonight. 

When the Blade responded to the tilt and sway of the Blue Paladin’s body, his spine curving back, hips following, Lance’s head dropped forward again, eyes glued to the dark fingers spidered over his hips. Grey gloves smoothed over the slick back of his skinsuit like a shadow, and Lance thought he could feel the heat of Keith’s touch through the layers. 

Gosh, he sure hoped so.

He could do this, he could soooooooo do this. 

Oh jeez, maybe he couldn’t do this when he felt a puff of heated breath against the short hairs at the nape of his neck.

“Ugh.” Ok, that probably could have been a better noise. Something lower, sexier, less pained, but he was kinda dying here because Keith was plastered against him. Lance was positive he could grate cheese on the abs he could feel undulating against his spine.

“Aww.” Jeez, another weird noise, he just couldn’t help himself. The only part Lance had any control over at this point were the fingers winding tighter in that stupid mullet and his hips as they followed the way too tempting roll of the Blade’s. 

It wasn’t his fault, somehow the Red Paladin’s body moved so fluidly against his back it was like they’d been doing crazy, hot stuff like this since forever. 

Yeah, definitely.

Absolutely 100% Keith’s fault.

And Lance was totally fine with it, for once.

Time for the razzle dazzle, he thought distantly, tempted to turn in the circle of Keith’s hands to face him or maybe just...keep doing this because...wow, they fit really well together. 

They moved so fluidly Lance felt a little off balance, like the only thing holding him up was the warm brand of Keith’s hands over his hips and the even more intense heat of the Blade’s chest pressed against his back, the searing exhales against his neck.

Lance didn’t know where Pidge or Hunk were, he didn’t care, except maybe to hope they weren’t within 5 meters so they didn’t see Keith’s hands slide a liiiiiitle lower, slithering down the sides of his thighs as they rocked in unison, then back up to trickle along his ribs. 

Oh jeez, Lance really was gonna have a stroke because all the blood in his body headed south with that little lick of a touch. That must be why he felt a little dizzy.

Forget Keith’s smile being a lethal, the way he was grinding up against the Blue Paladin was a weapon of mass destruction, and Lance was mortally seduced. The only thing that kept him from keeling over was the solid strength of the Red Paladin behind him.

“Thought you were giving me a lesson.”

Dangit, how did Keith managed to sound so composed?! 

All Lance could muster was a croaky “Oh, quiznak” at the undeniably intimate way the Blade murmured into the Blue Paladin’s ear.

To pay the arrogant Red Paladin back, Lance’s grip tightened in his hair, but whether he was gonna try and haul Keith’s mouth away from his ear or smash his face into his neck, he didn’t know. He didn’t know anything except that was definitely a really prominent boner snugged right up against his butt, and Lance really really really didn’t want to say or do anything to make this stop.

If he wasn’t so busy rolling back into the body behind his, his mind only distantly following the music, he would’ve huffed at the cocky laugh that dripped into his ear. 

“Hey… Lance? Know what would make tonight perfect?” Darn the guy for sounding so flipping hot. How the heck did Keith’s voice hit that sweet spot between smoky and tentative? Like he was dead set on something but hedging about actually going for it? 

A kiss, please say kiss, oh holy crow, if Keith said a kiss or just went ahead and kissed him or even just put his mouth like 2 millimeters closer and connected with the Blue Paladin’s skin Lance would be so so so fine with dying right now. 

Spontaneous human combustion. 

Origin: Lance’s McClain’s pants.

“Mm what?” Oh, thank goodness he actually made a word that time, and one that made sense and fit in context and everything, because he’d been super close to it being a pretty uncool horny groan instead.

“A blowjob.”

All Lance’s systems went down.

Except, apparently, his autonomic reflexes because, without even thinking about it, the Blue Paladin let go of the Blade’s hair to slam a hand down one of Keith’s wrists and immediately haul him right off the dance floor and towards what he prayed was whatever passed for a space bathroom around here. 

It was a pure, desperate, entirely instinctual response that came from somewhere around Lance’s hindbrain.

By the time a door slammed and Lance’s higher cognitive functions kicked back in he was looking at a rather ruffled look Keith backed up against a wall, hair a rucked up mess, and his usually pale face a little pink. 

Talk about a good look. Hot dang!

“Guess that’s a yes,” the Blade huffed with a note of amusement.

If Lance wasn’t busy eyeballing Keith’s Marmoran suit to figure out how the heck he was going to get into it he would’ve whacked the guy for looking so smug. But hey, a guy wants what he wants, and Lance wasn’t very interested in pretending he was too proud to get enthusiastically down and dirty in what turned out to be a lot like a space janitor’s closet.

“Heck yeah, it’s a yes! All systems green, permission granted, whatever, dude, just how the heck do you-” Lance muttered as he insinuated his hands between them in a not at all subtle attempt to figure out where this sucker unzipped or unsealed or whatever. 

Oh gosh, abs. So. Many. Abs. He could totally feel them through Keith’s suit; he needed to get a gander at them right flipping now, or he was going to grab the Blade’s knife and start cutting the stupid thing off him.

“Awesome,” Keith replied and, okay, his lethal weapon smile just went nuclear because it was way too sexy to deal with. As was the next move the Blade made when he slipped his fingers around Lance’s waist once more and spun them so the Blue Paladin was the one pressed to the wall.

And then ooooh then it went light years past the best day in Lance’s life to being the best day in the history of all beings in the universe because Keith’s fingers sought out the seal of the Blue Paladin’s skin suit with the easy familiarity of someone who’d worn one himself. As he peeled the front open, baring what felt like miles of tanned skin, the Blade’s knees hit the floor with a thud nearly as loud as the one Lance’s poor heart just made.

“Oh...wow...Keith y-you’re...you’re...really swell,” Lance stammered, at a loss for anything smooth or even remotely non-embarrassing to say, blue eyes wide as he stared down at the unexpected, and 100% totally awesome, sight before him. Yeah, this was definitely how Mama McClain’s baby boy died and died deliriously happy.

“Thanks,” Keith replied with a crooked smile that went really nicely with the flush stealing over his face. Who knew the usually too-cool-for-you Blade knew how to blush. It would’ve been adorable if his eyes weren’t hungry as hell and dragging down the bare V of dark skin on display from Lance’s peeled open skinsuit. 

The look was heavy as a touch, and the Blue Paladin shivered as gloved fingers dipped in to push the slick material fully open. Lance shimmied his arms free to let dark, smooth fabric pool around his hips.

“Damn.”

Lance would’ve preened at the appreciative sigh Keith gave when he finally got a look at the goods. Yeah, the Blue Paladin was blessed with a bit more package than the average dude, thank you very much. As it was the Blue Paladin was too busy once again winding his fingers in that ridiculously soft, dark hair to say anything egotistical or silly that might ruin his shot at getting Keith’s stupid, sexy mouth all over him. 

“Been wanting this,” Keith mumbled and, before Lance could respond Keith was an total angel, or the absolute devil, and slid one gloved hand down his cock to give it one measured pump that had Lance slapping a hand over his own mouth. When the Blade’s tongue looped out to drag excruciatingly slow up the underside, all while being a totally sexy freak and staring up at Lance without blinking, the Blue Paladin bit down on his palm.

If he had enough higher brain functions left Lance might’ve wasted precious moments wondering how long Keith had been thinking about this, or if he’d thought at all and instead just rushed in spur-of-the-moment as usual. Fortunately for him, the Red Paladin’s tongue did something amazing and swirled over the tip a couple of times and wiped out Lance’s ability to process anything besides the sensation of searing, wet heat and the very insistent craving for more more more.

When Keith’s head dipped down Lance’s fingers sifted through his bangs to push it back so he could watch. He wasn’t sure if that was an good idea because, wow, Keith looked amazing. Seeing those purple eyes hood over when the Red Paladin’s sighed and parted his lips wider to slip the head past them to rest on his tongue almost had Lance blowing his load then and there. 

He desperately wanted this to last more than 30 seconds.

He was not gonna let Keith beat him this time!

Well okay beat him off sure, but not, like, super fast or anything. 

Lance was gonna make this last as long as possible even if it mean picturing Hunk naked...no wait, he’d seen that plenty of times before and he was beefy in all the right ways. 

Ok, Shiro then...no no no, bad idea, that was making daddy issues a real possibility. 

Allura was actually kinda hard to picture besides being all regal and princess-y and slightly terrifying. 

Pidge was 100% not allowed to ever cross his mind. She’d somehow know and kill him in a way that made the cause of death untraceable.

Fine, sheer willpower it was! Better than Coran. Ugh, ok great now he was thinking about Coran.

One glance down at Keith banished that thought completely from Lance’s mind when the Blade pulled off his dick with a darn dirty noise to catch his breath. Then Keith’s tongue dashed over his lips in a way that had Lance swallowing down a choking noise before the Blade bobbed down again quickly like he regretted taking even a second to breathe when he could have Lance’s thickness sliding over his tongue.

Yeah, he had to make this last. Lance wanted to burn this into his memory forever, and he fully intended to make sure he had the director’s cut and not just the highlight reel to content himself with on future lonely nights. Sheer, stubborn willpower would have to see him through.

Sure, Lance had experience. Some, not a ton. He wasn’t, technically, a virgin but his list of conquests was more like a Post-it note, and he’d been the one ditched every time. 

Ah ah, not thinking about that now! Bummer thoughts begone. Much better things to focus on!

Like one ridiculously attractive Blade of Marmora currently on his dick like it was an all day sucker. Lance was dying in the most delicious possible way, slowly choking on every dirty, wet noise Keith’s sinful mouth made as he bobbed on his cock again with a hum emanating from deep in his throat.

It had been well over a year! In space! No one could fault Lance for feeling almost like this was his first ever beej and, therefore, serious threat to his stamina. 

And there was something about getting this from another dude, someone who knew their way around the equipment and what felt awesome. And definitely something about Keith being the one sliding stupid pretty lips over his length that was causing the Blue Paladin to struggle with his self control. 

That and the incredible picture of the lethal Blade on his knees in front of the Paladin, one gloved hand now sliding up to flatten over the what felt like acres of bared, tan flesh. Keith was hitting all of Lance’s buttons, half of them he hadn’t even been aware he had, but yeah...glove kink for sure now. Or a bigger one than before, at least.

A hushed moan trickled past Lance’s lips as deft fingers spidered to fan over his stomach, then chest, flattening in a silent hint to stay there. Lance’s own grip tightened in dark hair briefly then relaxed, an absent and quickly repetitive motion with each downward slide of the Blade’s mouth. 

The Blue Paladin bit the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from making any more noise beside the occasional punched out groan or sigh he couldn’t avoid, worried he might make one of his badly timed quips and spoil what was single-handedly the best blowjob of his existence. 

Or attract attention and some poor Olkari would open the door and be scarred for life.

He nearly lost that battle when Keith hollowed his cheeks as he drew up, and Lance’s eyes rolled back in his head at the sensation. The moan Keith made as his slid his lips over the head of Lance’s cock before flattening his tongue against the tip and licking it in broad, wet swipes and made the tanned teen twitch on his tongue.

“Thought you’d be noisier,” the Blade murmured as he turned his face to lick over the sharp jut of one hip then sealed his mouth over the soft skin of the other teen’s stomach and sucked.

“Cripes...man...trying not to get caught here…” Lance replied weakly. 

The look the Red Paladin cast up at him had Lance regretting his words because, oh heck, Keith looked like the Blue Paladin has just thrown down a challenge.

“Oh my gosh, don-” Lance didn’t get a chance to finish his protest before the dark haired teen before him apparently decided he was gonna suck Lance’s soul out through his cock.

“Agh! Keith!” He bit out through clenched teeth as his fingers tightened in black hair. Rather than dissuade the Blade the yank dragged a moan from the him that reverberated down the Paladin’s length.

“Holy crow...you would like that…” Lance stared dazedly down at the Blade, whose eyes had closed in apparent bliss at the sharp tug to dark strands. Using his tight grip in his hair, Lance pulled again, drawing the Blade off his length, which wrenched a groan out of both of them, before he tentatively pushed against the curve of Keith’s skull and the Red Paladin sank again, tongue sliding in smooth undulations. 

“Ugh.” Yay, another weird noise.

The Blade’s gloved hand curled and dragged down Lance’s chest; it would’ve left scratches for sure if Keith’s fingers had been bare. The Blue Paladin wanted marks. Something to look at tomorrow, the next quintent, something that stung to help him remember everything about this moment.

“Ngh!” Jeez, he really couldn’t stop himself, could he?

If Lance had any blood left in his brain, or functioning neurons that hadn’t been fried in ecstatic shock, he might’ve come up with some dirty talk, something smooth and raunchy befitting the situation. As it was, he was reduced to low moans he totally sucked at keeping in every time the Blade responded to the rhythmic pull and press of the Blue Paladin’s hand on his head. The fact that Lance felt like he was about to hyperventilate didn’t help with any attempt to maintain a cool facade, he was breathing that fast. 

When the hand not pawing at Lance’s chest slid down to curl around the back of one of the Blue Paladin’s thighs to firmly pull forward Lance choked on the next moan. The Blade was definitely trying to break him, too large violet eyes still cast up and staring even if they were a little glazed over. The Blue Paladin watched nearly every inch of his cock slide past those pretty pink lips.

“Holy...Keith...y-you’re gonna...you have to…oh holy c-crow!” Lance stuttered, the fingers in the Blade’s hair clenching almost cruelly in a vain effort to pull him off, or at least warn him things were about to get kinda explosive. 

“K-Kei- jeez!” Lance groaned when the Red Paladin shook his head minutely side to side, hollowed his cheek purposefully, and bobbed low once more until his nose nearly brushed tanned skin below Lance’s navel. Then the Blade moaned, low and long like he was actually getting something out of this too besides being nominated for sainthood, as far as Lance was concerned.

“Quiznak!” Lance swore then let go of Keith’s hair to slap a hand back over his mouth to stifle his shout when he came, hips jerking minutely as he spilled into the Blade’s mouth. And the fricking sexy weirdo didn’t pull off or scrunch up his face in disgust or even flip Lance’s the bird for not giving him a better warning.

Nope, Keith was apparently a dick sucking angel and just...kept...going. Gloved fingers curled around Lance’s cock to stroke him firmly, practically milking him while the Blade suckled the tip, tongue flickering in a way that had Lance seeing stars at the same time he flinched because it felt so good it almost started hurting.

“Jeez...holy…” The Blue Paladin panted as his head thunked back against the wall behind him. “Ah...ah! Keith, too much!” He protested, ineffectually pawing at the Blade’s shoulders when it seemed like the Red Paladin was gonna keep torturing him until Lance was hard again or maybe started crying. 

It was a distinct possibility, Keith’s mouth was that good.

Was there anything he wasn’t awesome at?

Ok, the Blue Paladin was young and still pretty horny, but he wasn’t a machine. It wasn’t until he yanked on Keith’s hair again that the Blade pulled off with a filthy groan and sat back on his heels with a totally indecent look on his face, with pink cheeks and his eyes half-lidded.

Lance stared down at him and, dang if his dick didn’t give a valiant effort at perking up again when the Blade licked his lips. 

“I dunno if swallowing is gross or the hottest thing ever,” Lance blurted then immediately cringed. “Ahhhh dangit!” The Blue Paladin knocked his knuckles sharply against his forehead. “Stupid, sorry! I think you sucked out some IQ points. C’mon, c’mon, lemme, I wanna-” To make up for saying something so monumentally stupid he reached down, tugging at Keith’s arms. 

What he wanted to do he wasn’t entirely sure. Kiss the heck outta him? Give a nice handie? Fall to his own knees and worship what he was sure was a spectacular dick?

All three sounded pretty good, actually.

Keith brushed Lance’s hands away and easily stood even if, to the Blue Paladin’s surprise, he seemed a little unsteady on his feet. The Blade’s face was flushed and his hair stuck up in every direction.

“Not yet.” Keith swiped the back of his hand over his mouth, but not in disgust. He was smiling and Lance’s knees wobbled more than they had during the blowjob.

“What do you mean ‘not yet’? Dude, that’s gotta be hurting,” Lance nodded at the hard line of Keith’s erection, obvious through his skinsuit, and tanned fingers ducked around Keith’s attempt to deflect them. Lance was going to figure out how the heck this Blade suit opened if it killed him.

Keith, darn him for being so good at close combat, snatched both Lance’s hands by the wrists and planted them, not all that gently, against the wall on either side of the Blue Paladin’s shoulders. 

“Not yet.” He said firmly as he leaned in and Lance, once again, didn’t know if it was gonna be awesome or gross if Keith kissed him right after he swallowed a load so big the Blue Paladin kinda felt dehydrated.

He felt Keith’s sweaty cheek brush against his as the Blade said the singlest hottest thing he’d ever heard right in his ear. 

“Don’t wanna come until you’re in me.”

“ ** _Madre de Dios_** ,” Lance wheezed.

No kiss then, but something a lot better was on the table now. 

“Yeah, yeah okay.” He nodded so quickly he almost headbutted the Red Paladin. “Okay! That! Let’s do that!” Lance whipped his hands out of Keith’s grip and tucked himself back into his skinsuit quickly, worming it back up over his arms and shoulders quickly. His eager, fumbling fingers were halted by the Blade’s gloved hands resting over his.

“Slow down, Lance,” Keith murmured as his own fingers slid the closure on the Lance’s suit slowly shut, inching it up until the Blade’s touch skimmed under the Blue Paladin’s chin. “We got all night. Right?” The Red Paladin’s head tipped to the side in a way that shouldn’t be so fricking endearing.

Lance’s mouth would’ve dropped open in shock at Keith suggesting patience except he wasn’t going to argue with the guy over something like this. 

All night. Oh gosh, the things he, they could get up to alllllllll niiiiiiight. 

Lance’s imagination would’ve kicked into overdrive, except not all his brain cells had recovered from the absolutely stellar blowjob. That would explain the lopsided and probably silly looking smile he gave the Blade.

“Yeah. All night. We should go back to the Castle, in that case. Right now.” Thankfully, being almost fatally turned on hadn’t destroyed Lance’s common sense. A bed, heck any horizontal surface, and triple security sealed doors were a must. 

He grabbed Keith’s hand and hauled him out of the closet and across the dance floor with just as much determination as he’d dragged them off it almost half a varga ago.  
****************************************************************************************************

The moment Lance turned away, Keith was resolved. It hadn’t been a smarmy wink or cheesy finger guns, but something much much better: unguarded, undiluted **_lust_**. 

Clearly something the Blue intended to keep hidden away, based on how quickly he spun on his heel, shoulders hunching in as though by making himself just that bit smaller the Blade wouldn’t note it.

Not a chance.

Now that he KNEW, Keith wasn’t going to let this go. He’d spent the last year feeling like the tighter he held onto things the more they seemed to slip away from him. Shiro. Leading Voltron. Trying to figure out who he was. What he was. 

The more he learned he felt the less he understood. 

He was half-Galra. His mother a Blade of Marmora. But how had she wound up on earth? Met his father? Had a child? Left? Where was she now? 

So many things beyond his control, his understanding.

But not this. This was... simple. A lot less complicated now he’d seen the same want blazing in the Blue Paladin’s eyes he’d held tightly controlled inside himself for so long.

The Blade knew what he wanted, what he’d always wanted. Now he knew it wasn’t one-sided.

This was the one thing he wouldn’t let slip through his grasp. Not today.

Like Shiro had drilled into him, patience gave Keith focus. He waited until the press of Olkari bodies sifted between Lance and his fellow Paladins, giving the Blade the smallest bit of cover to do what he’d wanted for so long.

With two steps Keith eased into the sinuous sway of the Blue Paladin as he moved, long, inky torso rocking back, hips following. The Blade’s smooth, grey gloved hands slithered around Lance’s waist to curve over lithe hips Keith had secretly eyed for months, wondering how sharp they’d feel under his touch. 

The Blade yearned to cut himself on the Blue Paladin, bleed out ecstasy.

He rolled with the the tanned teen, matching the smooth wave of his body in tics, chest pressed to his back, tucked in so close there was no way this could be interpreted as anything other than what he intended.

Keith needed him. So much.

“Uhhhhhey...buddy...wh-what are doing?” Keith stifled a smile at the way Lance’s voice pitched high for a split second before it cracked. He may have caught the Blue Paladin off guard, but he hadn’t been shoved away with a laugh or a look of irritation. No, Lance had paused only a moment before his hands wove into the air above their heads once more.

He was beautiful. Languorous lines Keith longed to traced with his tongue, etch the curve of with his teeth.

The Blade craned his neck to speak low by the Blue Paladin’s ear. “Dancing, what does it look like?” The fingers resting lightly on those slim hips tightened as Lance moved, the Blade following just behind him, in close lockstep.

“...oh.”

Keith’s eyes closed briefly as the breathy note in that one small word. The Blue Paladin’s limbs were still liquid, his back never stiffened in response to the Blade’s close touch but instead curved into the Blade’s again as blue eyes slid in his direction, and snagged Keith’s gaze as Lance’s looked over his shoulder.

“You call that dancing?”the Blue Paladin challenged, but for once it was without his usual bluster. Lance’s tenor has pitched a little lower, smoother, and the Blade’s fingers tightened incrementally on his hips as he stared at him. “Kinda think you need some lessons.”

The Blade sucked in a sharp breath when Lance’s sinful hips rocked back with a serpentine motion. 

Grinding. 

Deliberate.

Enticing.

As were the slim, strong fingers that snaked into Keith’s hair, drawing him closer still, until his breath puffed against the smooth fabric over Lance’s neck. Fingers that curled around bayard to activate its magic, squeezed a trigger to mow down drones, and now nearly brought the Blade to his knees with a simple glides through dark locks.

“Oh...shit,” Keith muttered, certain he’d just leapt in over his head, and he fully intended to drown in the Blue Paladin tonight as his body moved in unison with Lance’s, following the hypnotic weave of his hips. The hand not tangled in Keith’s hair wove into the air again, and the Blade’s eyes followed as his fingertips were stained, violet, ruby, azure.

Keith’s nose brushed the soft hair at the nape of Lance’s neck, just skimming the slickness of his suit, and the Blue Paladin’s made a quiet noise. A hum or a gasp, the Blade didn’t know, didn’t care, the only thing he cared about was the subtly harder clench of the fingers in his hair.

When the beat changed and the two Paladin’s with it, Keith easily following the limber swing of Lance’s enviably lithe torso, he caught another noise dripping from the tanned teen’s lips and he wanted to know its taste.

One song became another or maybe it was one long indistinguishable melody, Keith didn’t note it, all his attention fixated on the way Lance’s fluid lines molded against his own hard angles so seamlessly. The Blue Paladin’s weight shifted back as he leaned into Keith’s chest, his head canting slow to land on the Blade’s shoulder, and Keith shuddered when he saw Lance’s eyes were closed, lips parted.

Another noise dripped from them and Keith’s eyed them as they the formed new sounds, a little sigh here, a wordless noise that held no meaning except pleasure as they continued to move.

The Blade’s fingers followed the lines of Lance’s body, tracking down the outside of those long, sleek muscled thighs as they moved, then dragged back up, reading the weaving terrain of his body, the sharp jut of his hip, the ripples of his ribs before one hand spread over his chest.

Keith didn’t know if it was the throbbing bass in the music or the Blue Paladin’s pounding pulse under his touch that reverberated through him, but it was undeniable, intoxicating as the bead of sweat that trailed down Lance’s cheek. Keith’s tongue glided over his lips, tempted to sip the salt from the Paladin’s skin.

“Thought you were giving me a lesson,” the Blade teased into the shell of his ear, elated when Lance’s fingers in his hair tightened again. Fuck, he loved getting his hair pulled.

“Oh...quiznak,” the Blue Paladin sighed, the Blade with him, heated breath stirring the fine hair’s at Lance’s temple. 

Keith had always watched others, learned from them how he should act, studying the motions, copying them, acting the part when he had to, often poorly when his true nature quickly shone through. 

He’d always had trouble feeling connected to others, like there was a particle barrier between him and the rest of the world. He could see people, hear them, be among them, but something thin and worn in him always made sure he knew how separated from others he truly was. Even Shiro sometimes.

But not with Lance. 

The Blue Paladin simply strolled up to the Blue Lion, politely knocked and Keith’s life was forever changed, dragged along with him into space, into this new, wonderous, terrifying existence as limitless as the stars. Any barriers between them had dissolved long ago, ground down in the heat of combat, smoothed over by Lance’s simple acceptance Keith wasn’t his rival, but his teammate, his leader for a while. His friend.

Whatever Keith had been, what he became, what he was becoming even now, Lance had been right there all along. 

Now he was right here, in the careful cage of the Blade’s arms.

Keith wanted to be just one more thing to Lance. 

Everything, even if it was for only one night.

“H-hey...Lance?” Keith had aimed for confident, smooth, but at that moment the Blue Paladin practically writhed against him and the Blade bit his cheek to hold back a groan. Grey arms banded more tightly around the Blue Paladin’s torso, Keith intent on keeping him there, close, not letting him slip away like so many things had for so long. “You know what would make tonight perfect?”

He could feel the heat of the tanned teen’s body through both their suits, and Blade longed to burn to cinders when Lance’s delectable ass ground against his obvious erection. Keith angled his face just a little more, seeking out the Paladin’s lips, the desire to kiss him so strong. Lick him. Taste every inch of that bronzed skin, feel the Blue Paladin’s pulse leap under his lips, tick under his tongue. 

“Hmmm...what?” the Blue Paladin’s voice drawled, dripping honey slow.

Long fingers twisted in his hair again, harder this time and the Blade was nearly felled by the need for Lance to use that grip more aggressively, force the Blade’s mouth against his skin, down his body, over his cock. He only hoped his voice wasn’t a weak as his knees felt at the moment.

They’d be hitting the floor soon enough, if he read this right.

He poured the offer into the other teen’s ear as both his hands slid down again, dragging fingertips that been stained with Galra blood, quintessence, and stardust down the inky lines of Lance’s body.

At least until the Blue Paladin went rigid in his arms. 

Keith felt something twist horribly in his chest, but before it could do more than pound one time so hard it made his breathing stumble, Lance’s hands slammed down on his and yanked.

Rather than twist Keith’s arm to shove him off with an affronted noise, the Blue Paladin redoubled the strength of his grip and pulled so hard the usually deft Blade nearly tripped over his own feet as he was hauled bodily through the crowd of aliens. Their faces, colors smeared past him in a blur of motion.

When he finally came to land he found himself in a small space, pushed against a door, and Lance leaning into him with a brand new expression. 

It was eager. And devilish. The Blade loved it.

Keith burned that look into his memory, along with the way Lance’s hands pressed against his chest then dragged down, clearly intent.

“I take it that’s a yes,” he smirked.

“Um, duh that’s a yes. Green light! Systems go! Whatever, just how do I-” The Blue Paladin rushed out even as his fingers insinuated themselves between the Blade’s suit and his chestplate.

That wouldn’t do. Keith had plans. Despite being rash, impulsive, this was the one thing he’d mulled over countless times, and it always resolved itself around one thing. 

Wrecking Lance McClain.

“Awesome,” he breathed as he swatted Lance’s hands away from his armor plate before seizing his wrists and spinning to push the Blue Paladin up against door in his place. Even in the low light, the Blade’s Galra vision allowed him the pleasure of watching Lance’s pupils dilate. 

So he liked being pushed around a little, Keith was going to keep that in mind.

His fingers sought out the seal of the Paladin’s suit with easy familiarity, fingers tracking down caramel flesh as a long, delicious V of it was bared as he slid the closure down. The rest of Keith soon followed as his legs folded under him, eyes dragging down the Blue Paladin’s torso, heavy as a touch. The Blade reached out to roll the sleek material down as Lance shimmied his shoulders free of it with a sinuous movement that had saliva pooling on the Blade’s tongue.

“Keith…” The Blade ripped his eyes away from the intriguing cut of Lance’s bared hips at the thin whisper of his name. Violet eyes fixed on azure with laser-like focus. “You’re...really swell.” Lance’s words might have been mild but his appearance was anything but. The Blade had barely touched him and he already a coiled line of tension, a whip ready unfurl, lash over Keith in the best possible way. He couldn’t wait.

“Thanks,” he demurred as his fingers curled in cool, smooth fabric once more and pulled it those last few centimeters down.

“...damn.” 

Keith knew Lance tended to be loud, brash, sometimes obnoxiously so to compensate for what he perceived were his own shortcomings. But never once had the Blue Paladin ever been so crass as to insinuate he was packing such serious heat. 

To the Blade it nearly felt like every missed Christmas and forgotten birthday was suddenly made up for as he traced gloved fingers from firm root to straining tip of definitely the nicest dick he’d seen. Big too, the kind of big he’d be feeling tomorrow, hopefully the day after that. 

“Fuck...I’ve been wanting this,” he murmured as his fingers feathered over the impressive length before closing in a circle and stroking. The Blade licked his lips at how hard the Blue Paladin was already, hopefully just as eager as him. Keith’s tongue slipped past his lips as he licked a long, firm stripe up the underside, heedless of the fact Lance had been dancing his tight ass off doboshes ago, and before that flying and fighting for his life. 

The Blue Paladin tasted of salt sweat, his skin warm and musky as Keith let his tongue trail up, gentling until the velvet tip teased just under the head, all while he stared up, unblinking. He didn’t want to miss a thing.

Lance was genuine in everything, including his unfiltered reaction to seeing, feeling the Blade’s tongue slick up his length. The Blue Paladin slapped one hand over his mouth to stifle a gasp, which the Blade didn’t like, while the other hand shot into Keith’s dark hair, which he certainly did enjoy.

Slim, tan fingers pushed into his bangs, and the Blade’s eyes fluttered closed at the touch, at the heat pressing against, past his lips, the thick, solid weight of Lance on his tongue. 

Fuck, he’d wanted this for so long. He didn’t care they were in a closet, their friends probably just meters away, that his knees ached on the hard floor, that Earth was so far away it was only a memory.

The only thing that mattered was Lance. Lance survived, they both survived today, and Keith had been so stupid to wait so long he nearly missed his chance. He took every chance tonight and moaned as he stroked the impressive length he couldn’t fit past his lips.

Keith hummed as he bobbed low, savoring the heady slide, the Blue Paladin’s muffled groan, fingers tightening in his hair, then loosening, again, again, each time he pulled back, tongue slicking over the weeping head. On one slow, satisfying drag he hollowed his cheeks and felt the flat of Lance’s stomach where he’d pressed his hand bow in with a gasp.

The Blade licked his lips, slow, leisurely as he peered up. 

Lance’s fingers pressed so hard to his face his knuckles whitened and the Blade was resolved; he’d wrench a scream out of him, even if it meant Hunk kicked in the door to investigate. With an impish smirk Keith’s tongue glided out once more and made a leisurely circuit of the head, licking up a bead of precum gathered at the tip, well aware those blue eyes was locked on him. He pursed his lips to slowly suck the head, like a tasty treat he’d been denied far too long, easing it back into his mouth one centimeter at a time until he had to swallow. 

He felt a shudder race through the Blue Paladin, and saw his azure eyes briefly roll back in his head, but still no more of those delectable sighs, bitten off moans, everything quieted behind that black gloved hand.

Keith pulled off with a lewd pop and turned his face to lick over the sharp V of one hip. “I thought you’d be noisier,” the Blade wondered, challenged, casting an eye up the tan, tempting, bare plane of the Paladin’s torso.

“Trying not to get us caught...cripes…Keith,” Lance muttered through his fingers.

The smile the Blade spared him was sharp as the knife tucked to the base of his spine, and the Blue Paladin knew him well enough to know that was Keith’s “about to fuck shit up” expression.

“Oh gosh! Don’t!” the Blue Paladin weakly protested as the Blade dove back down on him so quickly Keith nearly choked, and he loved it. Slim fingers tightly clenched his hair, as though Lance would pull him off. The Blade wrapped a hand around the back of one of the Blue Paladin’s strong thighs, and pulled, moaning when Lance’s cock fucked into his throat once more.

“You would like that,” Lance muttered, both hands now in the Blade’s hair, tugging, pulling, sometimes pressing against the back of his head, pushing Keith’s mouth down once more. The Blade sighed as he hollowed his cheeks and the palm on Lance stomach raised, fingers curled in, and scratched down his chest, pawing at that smooth skin. 

Keith hated that he was wearing gloves.

The Blue Paladin’s previous silence slipped away and a litany of moans, mixed with the Blade’s name, dripped from his lips. Keith glanced up to see Lance bite down on his lower lip at a particularly clever twist of the Blade’s tongue, so he did it again, again, again.

“Holy...Keith...m’gonna...you have to-!” 

He felt the throb on his tongue, the tang of precome, and he wanted it all. When the Blue Paladin’s fingers yanked at his hair in vain effort to pull him off, the Blade tightened his grip on Lance’s thigh and yanked him forward again, burying his cock in his throat with a ecstatic groan. For all his intention to wreck Lance, the Blade was coming nearly undone himself as another tug at his hair sent a shiver down the back of his neck, his spine, and one hand nearly pressed into his crotch.

“Quiznak!” Lance blurted and one hand abandoned the firm clench on Keith’s hair to slam over the Blue Paladin’s mouth once more as he came. The Blade’s eyes squeezed shut at the bitter taste, and he swallowed. Then again, fingers curling again and raking down the Blue Paladin’s thighs, as he focused on trying to suck Lance dry. He was in no hurry for this to be over, wanting to stay sunk in this moment as long as possible, immersed in the feel of sweat tacky skin and muffled, ragged breathing, and the throb of the Blue Paladin’s heartbeat so strong the Blade could feel it on his tongue.

“Agh! Too much, Keith...jeez…” Lance moaned as his head thumped the wall behind him when the Blade didn’t slip off, if anything the grip on his thighs tightened. Only when Lance’s fingers clenched hard enough to move past pleasure and into pain did Keith lean back and settle on his heels to smirk up at him, tongue dashing out to sweep over his lips and gather in the last of Lance’s flavor.

“Swallowing is either the grossist or hottest thing ever.” 

Keith stared up at him a moment, then the instinct in him rose up to tell Lance that was the single dumbest thing he could have said in response to Keith sucking his dick. He liked the guy, damnit, but sometimes he said the exact wrong thing.

It...hurt. The Blue Paladin had the potential to crush the Blade in a way he thought he was prepared for, but clearly not based on the sinking feeling that suddenly filled Keith where his stomach should have been.

The Blue Paladin’s eyes widened, a few tics late realizing what he’d said and, to the Blade’s amusement, smacked himself hard on the forehead. 

“Sorry! That was stupid. You sucked out IQ points, I think.” Suddenly, the Blade was hauled to his feet and manhandled in such a quick fashion he would’ve received whiplash if if he wasn’t used to life, in general, abruptly skewing in directions he never anticipated.

He looked down, a little light headed, at the Blue Paladin’s fingers flitting over his chest plate, his suit, skimming down his stomach, intent on seeking him out. “C’mere, let me-”

“Mm, not yet,” he hummed, swiping at his mouth which seemed dry despite everything. Maybe it was the high flush on the Blue Paladin’s face, turning his tan skin darker than usual, seeping down his neck, further to a broad chest then tapered waist Keith desperately wanted to wrap his legs around.

“Whadya mean not yet? That’s gotta be hurting.” Keith snickered when Lance gestured at the general vicinity of the Blade’s dick. The fact that the Blue Paladin has just gotten sucked off in a closet at an alien dance club didn’t phase him, but saying ‘cock” did. 

He thought it was cute, the Blue Paladin’s goshes and dangs and every other kindergarten equivalent of a profanity he dropped while the Blade cursed like a Garrison officer after a bar crawl.

When the Blue Paladin’s fingers darted in again, trying to find the cleverly hidden seal on Keith’s suit, he snatched up his wrists and quickly pinned them to the door at Lance’s back.

“I said...not...yet.” Keith murmured as he leaned in, enjoying the way the Paladin’s eyes widened, and he wanted to dive into blue depths and sink for a few more vargas. He was sorely tempted to lick the next words into Lance’s mouth, but he’d little idea how the tanned teen would feel about tasting himself on the Blade’s tongue, so he settled for practically purring into his ear.

“I’m not gonna come until you’re in me.”

The Blue Paladin made a strangled noise that gratified the Blade, and nodded so quickly he nearly knocked their foreheads together. Keith pulled back a few inches, reluctant to leave the tempting expanse of bare skin he’d barely had a chance to touch, and not once with his bare hands.

“ ** _Madre de dios_**...yeah...okay...let’s do that,” the Blue Paladin said quickly, his eyes fixed on the Blade’s face, like if he blinked Keith would vanish to the other side of the galaxy again. Not a chance of that tonight, the Blade resolved as he grabbed Lance’s fumbling fingers from where they were quickly trying to haul up his environmental suit.

“Slow down.” The Blade pushed those hands away in order to enjoy flitting his own over the Blue Paladin’s chest briefly. He intended to spend a lot more time acquainting himself with the warmth, the taste of Lance’s skin. 

“We’ve got all night, right?” They may not have tomorrow, no one could guarantee that, not with the war, Zarkon, the vast, oblivion of space. But they had tonight, and Keith intended to make the absolute most of it.

Grey gloved fingers inched up Lance’s chest, regretfully hiding it away behind oil slick material, to his neck where the Blade’s thumb rested briefly over the Blue Paladin’s pulse as he closed his suit. 

It still thrummed wildly, as though Lance were still trapped in the heat of Keith’s hard touch, his softer mouth, his unbreakable resolve to wreck this beautiful boy before the sun rose over Olkarion’s russet mountains.

“Yeah,” Lance agreed breathlessly. Keith tracked the slip of the Blue Paladin’s pink tongue over his lower lip, violet eyes zeroed in, intent on tasting every inch soon enough. “We should go back to the Castle. Right now.”

The Blade didn’t have time to argue, not that he intended to, before his hand was seized in an iron grip and he was hauled out of the quiet, dim intimate space of an alien janitorial closet and back into the vibrant cacophony of the club. 

He followed the Blue Paladin, lead by the firm hand in his, a tether he’d prefer to never stray from, but he was a practical man and knew the clasp would be broken by time and distance soon enough. But for tonight, he remained on his heels, strange eyes trained on the back of the Blue Paladin’s head as he navigated them through the crowd.

Lance wove them between alien dancers as effortlessly as he piloted through the stars, Keith carried in his wake, as he’d always been, buoyed along on the Blue Paladin’s tides as they dragged him into previously undiscovered depths the Blade was desperate to explore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was just part 1 of several upcoming chapters of relentless smut...and some sweetness. Buckle in and subscribe!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, they're out of the (space) closet now!
> 
> Please comment if you enjoy, feed the beast!
> 
> P.S. Any mistakes will be edited later, I always miss something in the drafts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up the main event...during which Lance learns Keith has a particular talent.
> 
> Subscribe and find out what it is next week!

“Hey guys, been fun saving the universe and partying and all, but me and Keith are gonna go say hey to Red!” Lance said in a rush to the group of Olkari teens and the remaining Paladins who’d returned to sit at their table. 

Pidge and Hunk looked up at Lance’s quick paced babble, their eyes moving from his flushed face to Keith’s, which the Blade immediately hid by pulling his hood up with one hand. 

The other was currently still clenched in Lance’s death grip.

The Yellow and Green Paladin’s faces immediately slid to something a little smug as they turned to look at each other. Yeah, they’d noticed.

Lance hurried on, his free hand dashing out to snatch up a drink from the table, practically from under the hand of Sroji, their Olkari party guide. 

“Yeah, she totally misses him! Wouldn’t be fair to keep her all to myself, would it?” Without waiting for an answer, or really a breath, the Blue Paladin tossed back the drink then dropped Keith’s hand to start yanking on his armor.

Allura would’ve been irritated to see how quickly Lance could get into his armor. He usually rolled in last whenever she had one of her surprise readiness drills. It was all about proper motivation, and Lance was highly motivated right now!

Keith stood there a little awkwardly, not willing to meet anyone’s eyes as Lance thumped into a seat to drag on his leg armor and slap gauntlets on. He automatically pointed when the Blue Paladin started looking for his belt, but otherwise didn’t say anything, content to let his hood hide his face so he didn’t have to see the knowing looks Hunk and Pidge shot at them.

“Pidgeon,” Lance said with a flourish as he leaned over to ruffle the Green Paladin’s hair. She ducked from him violently. “Hunkmeister!” Lance raised his hand for a high five.

“Yeah, I dunno know where your hand’s been, man,” Hunk demurred with a smirk.

Lance froze, hand still up raised, as a lurid blush dashed over his face and caused his already tan skin to darken immediately. “Uh…” 

“Say bye, Lance!” Keith, ever the hero, broke in loudly and grabbed Lance’s arm, jerking him back from Hunk’s smug look so hard he stumbled into the Blade.

“Bye Lance!” The Blue Paladin shouted as he was hauled away. He knew he had the goofiest grin on his face and couldn’t find it in himself to care. Blowjobs were swell, and Keith’s were...well, delivered by Keith. 

He was allowed to be riding high!

The two Paladins practically fell on to the street, hands once again tightly clasped, then looked around a few moments to orient themselves before starting a brisk jog in the direction where Red was parked. 

Neither of them said anything; however, each time Lance glanced over at the Blade he saw Keith not so discreetly sneaking looks back at him. The nerves that had threatened to shatter Blue Paladin a short while ago had slipped away to be replaced with giddy anticipation. 

When they came to a halt at the paws of the great Lion, both of them easily passing through her particle barrier, Lance let go of Keith’s hand and gestured as Red dropped her jaw ramp.

Keith’s face did a funny little tango of emotions, like they weren’t used to appearing on his features, before they settled into a soft smile that made Lance’s stomach do something not anatomically possible. 

“Hey, girl,” the Red Paladin murmured as he walked up the ramp, one hand rising to skim over the Lion’s incredible armor. 

Lance followed, practically on Keith’s heels, smiling at the Blade’s obvious affection for Red. 

“She’s happy to see you.” Sure enough, the Lion was practically purring in that silent but omnipresent way she had of resounding in Lance’s mind.

“Yeah, I know, I can hear h-” Keith stuttered to a halt and Lance nearly bumped into him. “Why can I still hear her? You’re her Paladin.” He twisted to look at Lance, confusion written across his features.

“Psshh,” Lance waved dismissively. “I’m her pilot, you’re her Paladin. Just keeping the jumpseat warm until you get back.” When Red didn’t mentally poke Lance in chastisement, like she was wont to do when he acted up, the Blue Paladin had all the confirmation he needed for the niggling thought that had been blipping around his head all these months. She really was Keith’s; she just let Lance guide her, or she decided to guide him, until her true Paladin returned.

That was okay. It just meant Blue was really Lance’s, and Allura was keeping her company until the Blue Paladin was back in his rightful place. One day soon, he hoped.

Keith stared at Lance for a few long moments before he smirked. “That mean you’re gonna let me fly her?”

“Dude, like she’d let me pilot now that you’re here!” Lance complained without any real indignation to it. “Go on, I know you’re dying to get your hands on the stick.” He waggled his eyebrows and mentally patted himself on the back for the innuendo when the Red Paladin groaned and gave him a playful push.

“Starting to rethink letting you fu-” Keith started as he hurried into the cockpit, one hand slipping out to smooth over Lance’s backside in a not at all subtle hint he was totally kidding. 

Hot dang, Keith totally felt up his butt! Alright, alright, alright!

“Bip bip bip!” Lance flapped his hand at the Red Paladin. “Can’t unsuck me, Mullet, so go ahead resign yourself to a night of dirty fun time,” he quipped as he hung over the back of the pilot’s chair.

Keith settled into it with a sigh, like he was coming home. 

He was, if only for a little while, Lance reminded himself. Then promptly shut that thought down. That was going on the deal with it later list. He was in a fantastic mood, and it was only going to get better once they got back to the Castle of Lions floating in orbit around Olkarion.

“I’d say you’re being gross but...yeah, sounds good,” Keith nodded at the Blue Paladin then turned around to face the viewscreen. “Now hang on to something,” he warned as his fingers curled over the controls and the navigation holo-screens blazed to life around them. Red was clearly more than ready to welcome her Paladin back, even if it was just for a short while.

Even with the inertial dampeners on, Lance grabbed a handhold over his head and top of the pilot’s chair tightly as Red roared to life. The huge Lion’s head snapped up as her particle barrier dropped. Red’s back legs coiled under her massive body as thrusters pitched up loudly. Then they were airborne with a tremendous leap and an uncharacteristic whoop from the Red Paladin.

The only thing that beat Lance’s grin watching Keith pilot Red like he was born to do it, like he existed for the sole purpose of flying this crazy sentient robot cat through galaxies and nebulas and binary black hole gravity wells, was the one stretching Keith’s face. 

The Red Paladin banked Red sharply over the forests spreading out from the Olkari capital, took a few wide, dizzying loops over the mountain ranges, before shooting straight up through the stratosphere in a series of pointless, but showy, spirals just for the sheer fun of it.

Thankfully, the dampeners prevented Lance from being flung about the cabin so he was able to enjoy the ride. Appreciate how effortlessly, easily Red and Keith synced up and moved so crisply, precisely. The fire blazing in Keith’s strange eyes, as Red shot them over the curve of the planet until its twin moons slid across the viewscreen, was captivating.

Like Lion, like Paladin, Lance thought idly as he watched Keith’s gloved hands slide naturally, familiar, skilled, and clearly affectionate, over the controls. Both Reds were the happiest Lance had seen in a while.

When Lance was at the controls he sometimes felt like flinching at how sensitive the Red Lion was. The slightest tightening of his grip could send her rocketing past his objective and into deep space. Flying Red was a negotiation for Lance, a little nudge here and please don’t slam into Hunk, a touch of throttling back there and Pidge nearly rear-ended them.

With Blue it was a dance, a seamless flow, an intricate weave of give and take between Paladin and Lion the two of them knew innately. Lance missed her something fierce; it was why he sometimes went down to her bay and sat on a paw, staring up at her gorgeous, hulking form.

He’d missed Keith too, more than Lance had allowed himself to admit before today. It was pretty easy to let down the walls of deliberate self-delusion after an intense orgasm.

Speaking of, when Red touched down lightly for a several gigagram giant robot, Lance found himself immediately backed into a wall by a rather pushy Blade.

“C’mon, man,” he protested when he felt sneaky hands start their sneaking again. “Not here.”

“Really?” The Red Paladin paused, shooting him an incredulous look. “You dragged me into a closet. This is way more private.”

The Blue Paladin grabbed Keith’s hands and pushed them back towards his chest. “Not in front of Red. Not a big fan of an audience.”

“She likes you,” Keith countered, fingers once again landing on Lance’s belt.

“Not helping! C’mon, two doboshes and we can be in my room, or your room, or old room. It’s still there, no one touched anything,” Lance countered, slapping the Blade’s hands away again as nerves sparked to life once more. “But I got...stuff in my room.” This time he managed to dip out of Keith’s range and practically slide down the ramp as Red lowered her head.

The Red Paladin quickly caught up, looking right, left, then right again as they hurried out of the landing bay and down the Castle’s corridors, clearly on the lookout for Coran or any other possible disruptions. “‘Stuff’ huh?”

Lance ducked his head as he sped up his pace. “Oh shove it, space malls are a thing, aliens have needs, and lube is one of them. FYI, in space we’re the aliens.”

Keith snickered as he popped his head around a corner before immediately casting an arm back to catch Lance in the chestplate. The mustachioed royal advisor had just exited one corridor and was strolling down another, head bent over a datapad. The both held their breath until he disappeared around a corner, then they jogged in the opposite direction towards a lift that would take them to the Paladins’ living level.

When the doors slid behind them with a hiss Lance gave the Blade a slightly defensive look. “You should happy I thought of it. Like heck I’m gonna sacrifice any of my moisturizer for fooling around. You should never use anything like that for...this. It’s not hygenic.” He waved between the two of them, which was a mistake because that allowed Keith, Mr. Ninja Reflexes, to grab his wrist again and haul him in once more. 

Although the manhandling was kinda doing it for Lance.

“Not complaining,” Keith muttered even as he sneakily flipped a latch on the side of Lance’s chestplate. “And you could at least call it fucking,” he mumbled into the side of Lance’s neck.

“Oh my gosh, wait thirty tics, okay!?” Not that Lance fought too hard, the Blade being all sorts of eager was thrilling. That didn’t stop the Blue Paladin from using one of the defensive moves Shiro taught him to suddenly switch up their grip, and now Keith was the one in a half-arm bar. 

Lance grinned at the surprised look on the Blade’s face before he shoved Keith back just as the lift doors opened, giving the Blue Paladin the opportunity to take off running.

He spared a look over his shoulder to shoot a cocky look at his former teammate as he rounded a corner, practically skidding into the opposite wall when he saw the Blade in hot pursuit. The Blue Paladin couldn’t help the laugh that burst from him when he heard Keith swearing as he actually bounced off a wall as Lance slapped a hand on the sensor to his quarters.

By the time the Blade darted into his room Lance already had his chestplate on the floor and was in the process of ripping off his arm guards. 

“Ah ah ah!” He pushed a gauntlet into Keith’s chest to halt his progress as the Blade stalked towards him. “Much as I appreciate, and I mean truly and deeply from the bottom of my horny heart, the enthusiasm, we’ve been fighting all day and partying all night. Kinda need a shower.”

The frustrated look that crossed the Red Paladin’s face, as his hands opened and closed on air half a meter from Lance’s chest, was definitely an ego boost. Even if the Blue Paladin was starting to feel a little nervous again, Keith was acting like he was two tics away from pouncing, and that was awesome. And slightly terrifying, in a boner inducing way.

Lance licked his lips. “You could...y’know... join me?” He wished that sounded more confident, but oh well, what was done was done. And apparently done well enough when the Blade’s pale face turned a little pink as his hands slowly moved to the neck of his own grey and purple suit.

“I am feeling kinda gross,” the Blade admitted, then realized what he said and ducked his head as the seal at the back of his suit’s neck released under the press of his fingers. “I mean, yeah, it’s been a long day, and Semfama is a tropical planet. It was ridiculously hot.”

More white armor hit the floor as Lance continued to strip. “Any beaches or was it just horrid humidity?”

Keith rolled his shoulders free of the suit and it slid to his waist as he tried to unclip his identity mask module from his temple. It was tangled in his hair. “Didn’t exactly get a chance to sightsee, kinda focused on getting control of that weapon.”

Lance’s eyes wandered appreciatively over the Blade’s chest as it was bared, Keith thankfully a little distracted. 

So. Many. Nice. Muscles. 

Lance planned on getting his mouth acquainted with them quite shortly, but yeah, he caught a whiff of himself as he cracked the seal on his suit and shrugged out of it. Thankfully it hadn’t bothered Keith earlier when he was up close and personal with Lance’s business. Sainthood nominee for sure.

But it was definitely showertime. **Sexy** showertime, Lance thought to himself with a smile.

“Hey, by the way, awesome job on commandeering the Ziaforge cannon! The Alliance fighters were pinned down, and it was getting pretty hairy until you guys tore a hole through that warship. It was sick.” Lance toed out of his boots before he turned to pad barefoot for the bathroom to turn on the water, a little shy about stripping down entirely right in front of Keith at the moment. He was positive he’d get over that soon, with the help of a naked Keith.

“Thanks. I was bummed when it went offline, it was pretty cool to fire. Hopefully they can get it back up soon; it would be a hell of deterrent against the Galra,” Keith’s voice drifted through the open door. “Hey, Shiro told me what you did on Naxzela.”

“What’d I do?” Lance queried, head cocked to the side while he tested the temperature with one hand before leaning over to roll his suit down his legs and kick it to a corner. “Besides come way too close to being a very handsome smear across that solar system,” he joked thinly as he stepped under the spray.

Oh man, this was so soooooooo needed. 

Also, he was never going to think about Naxzela again, thank you very much Keith. He didn’t need **more** nightmares. Pidge screaming they weren’t going to die there, not now, like she knew they would one day, some other place, some other time in this war, was going to wreck his already rotten sleep cycle for deca-phoebs.

“Shiro said he should’ve listened to you. As soon as those generators towers popped up you suggested Voltron get off planet. Good instincts.” 

Lance felt his face get a little hot, and it wasn’t from the shower. “Eh, common sense. Between the mines and Galra ships who wouldn’t want t-” He was cut off abruptly by the feel of a very warm, very hard, and very naked Blade of Marmora pressed up against his back. 

And lips, there were lips on his bare shoulder.

“Nngh.” Hi stupid noise, why did you come back?

“And he told me what you said to Allura to get her to supercharge Voltron so you could reach escape velocity,” the Blade murmured into the nape of Lance’s neck.

“Aah...um...she was freaking out, we all were, I only tried to calm her d- ooh.” Aaaand those were hands stealing around his waist again. Lance looked down and knew it was stupid to think Keith would wear gloves in the shower, but it seemed like the dude was somehow less naked without them. 

How the heck did the Blue Paladin wind up finding gloved fingers as incomprehensibly sexy as Keith’s many other hot unclothed body parts? 

“Shut up and take the compliment, Lance,” the Blade said gruffly behind him right as his mouth landed on the curve between the Blue Paladin’s neck and shoulder.

Lance bit back a groan. Oh jeez, if Keith kept this up the Blue Paladin was in danger of getting ahead of him two orgasms to none, and he didn’t want to be selfish. 

Of course, it would help him last longer when they finally got down to beeswax buuuuuut there was a serious lack of reciprocity happening. As tempting as it was to let Keith’s calloused, clever hands keep exploring, Lance was more than ready to turn the tables.

While he was still a tad jittery, Keith’s obvious enthusiasm did a lot to allay his nerves. It gave Lance the courage to turn in those pale arm and press the flat of his hand against the Red Paladin’s chest. He smirked at the Blade with a confidence he nearly felt. 

“Yeah, yeah, we’re both big heroes. Lemme reward you.” Before Keith could come up with a smart retort the Blue Paladin’s fingers stole into dark damp hair and tugged, lifting the Blade’s chin so Lance could introduce his mouth to a neck that definitely needed a hickey on it.

“Ffffu-! Lance,” the noise Keith made was somewhere between a complaint and a warning, but the obvious shudder that shot through him spoke volumes more. Keith clearly enjoyed getting his hair pulled. He was also a little sensitive right there, and if Lance was good at anything it was pinpointing a weak spot then focusing on it with laser-like precision. 

He wasn’t called the sharpshooter for nothing.

Although the water washing over them was cleansing, the Blue Paladin could still faintly taste Keith’s sweat under his tongue, and something unique to the Red Paladin, an appealing earthy note to his skin the tanned teen decided he was a tremendous fan of as he parted his lips to seal over the tick of the Blade’s pulse point.

Wet fingers clenched into the wings of Lance’s shoulder blades when he struck gold with a little suck, and Keith lurched against him. Slim, tan fingers trickled over pale biceps then down the Red Paladin’s sides as Lance started a very methodical survey of Keith’s neck, leisurely tracing the terrain with his lips, then tongue.

“Shit...Lance...quit dicking around,” the Blade ground out even as another shiver coursed through him, so obvious Lance felt him twitch in his arms. He answered that by hauling the short Blade right up against him and **ooohhhhhh wow** , they fit together all sorts of nice, and Keith was stupid hard against his thigh. Lance was soooo tempted to rub himself off against those awesome abs.

But again, time to reciprocate.

“Rude,” the Blue Paladin murmured as his knees unlocked so his mouth could land a little lower, tracking over the slope of Keith’s shoulder. “I’m being nice here, so lemme play, okay?” 

He pressed another kiss to the hard arch of muscle along Keith’s shoulder and grinned to himself as the Blade’s usually rigid posture gradually went loose, and he slumped against the wall. 

Lance hummed cheerfully as he took his time exploring, delighted to learn that it wasn’t just Keith’s neck that was sensitive but his everything! And he was vocal, but not in the embarrassingly nonsensical weird noise way Lance was.

No, Keith was kinda dirty. And bossy. 

“Shit...Lance,” the Blade panted when Lance’s tongue slicked over a nipple. “Fuck! Yeah yeah, you can bite,” he exhaled when the Blue Paladin’s teeth came into play lightly; the Red Paladin’s prompt convinced Lance to apply gentle pressure until Keith slowly twisted against him. 

“Harder. Mmm! Hell yeah.” A hand moved into the tanned teen’s short hair, cradling the slope of his skull as the Blue Paladin’s mouth lazily tracked down the Blade’s hard torso. “Your fucking tongue.”

“Aww,” Lance sighed when his hands finally smoothed over Keith’s abs. “Working out totally paid off, quiznak,” he groaned happily before he buried his face in Keith’s stomach and blissfully spent several minutes memorizing what made him squirm, what light touches of his fingers made the Blade’s hips arch away from the shower wall, and which glides of his tongue made Keith’s stomach hollow out with a harsh exhale. 

And his dick, oh son of a gun, Lance didn’t even mind when it smacked him under the chin, it was that nice. 

Smaller than Lance’s, but then again most were, but thick, uncut, flushed and looked like it would feel amazing in his mouth, in his totally biased and extremely horny opinion. His tongue flicked out with a hungry noise but just before he made contact Keith’s fingers in his hair tightened to the point it wasn’t the fun pain but just **hurt**.

“Ok, ow,” Lance grumbled as he cast a mulish look up at the Blade.

“Fucking don’t,” Keith warned, with his eyes squeezed tightly shut and his face creased like he just pulled a muscle. 

“C’mon, I promise I totally know what I’m doing, I swear,” Lance begged, and no, he wasn’t all that prideful right now; he would beg some more if only he could get his mouth on Keith’s cock. He really really really wanted it on his tongue. 

“I’ll come in two tics, okay?” Keith barked and his eyes opened to glare down at the Blue Paladin, who apparently made such a pretty sight on his knees the Blade’s expression softened almost immediately. “I’m too worked up, just...just gimme a few doboshes.” Keith’s face was bright red, and it wasn’t just from the hot water. “Please.”

Darnit, he had to go and ask nicely. Lance rolled his eyes and reluctantly got off his knees, although he did drag his hands up the outside of the Blade’s thick thighs appreciatively as he stood. “Spoilsport. Fine. But I’m totally going down on you later,” he threatened with a finger in Keith’s face.

To his credit, Keith chuckled before he ducked his head. “Fine, sure, later.” He pushed off the tile and reached for the wall mounted soap dispenser to lather his hands, then paused and sniffed. “This isn’t the usual stuff the Castle gives us.”

“Nope!” Lance replied as filled his own hands and hesitated a moment before placing them on Keith’s back. Oooh, yeah, this was a good idea. “Space mall again, got something I like better. Smells good, right?” His slick hands rubbed circles over Keith’s shoulders and, yay, the Blade immediately relaxed into the touch. 

“It’s okay,” Keith demurred. The Blue Paladin smirked when the Blade stopped grumbling after an initial protest of, “I can wash myself y’know,” and let Lance have his way.

Lance’s fingers traced the flat of Keith’s pale shoulder blades and along the tiniest smattering of freckles over them, so faint the only reason he could see them was he was that flipping close, and also super focused on memorizing every part of Keith’s body. He was pretty sure he was gonna have only memories to keep him company for a while after tonight. His fingers curled in and carefully manicured nails scratched down.

“Mmmmm,” the Blade hummed as his head canted back to rest on Lance’s shoulder.

“Good?” the Blue Paladin queried quietly as his palms smoothed over the hard packed muscles of the Blade’s back then eased around to his chest and lightly scratched down again. The Blade made another pleased noise and leaned into him more heavily. 

Oh gosh, maybe Keith would let him give him a rub down later, that would be awesome. Then Lance could touch everything for hours. He was totally going to try convince him.

“S’great,” Keith muttered.

“Yeah it is,” Lance agreed idly as his fingers bumped down the ripple of Keith’s oh so hard lats, trailing suds along their path. 

Wow, he didn’t think he’d ever had so much fun just touching. Maybe it was because for the longest time Keith was so prickly, unapproachable, and now he was turning to putty in the Blue Paladin’s hands. It was a bit heady, watching Mr. Too-Cool Kogane sigh so softly, his usually tense face relaxing because of Lance’s magic hands.

It was a nice bit of confidence stroking for the Blue Paladin.

As was the even quieter little moan Keith made when Lance’s hands smoothed over what was quite possibly the tightest tush this side of the Z’frellian nebula. And when Keith’s hips tilted back the smallest bit in unconscious invitation, well, Lance wasn’t going to be rude and decline the offer. His palm flattened over one cheek then slowly squeezed.

He wasn’t entirely sure who whimpered, but he was going to guess it was himself. He was pretty sure Keith was not a whimperer.

“Dude, you have the nicest butt,” Lance noted with a ridiculous amount of awe.

“Can you not call me dude when you’re feeling me up?” Keith responded without opening his eyes. “But thanks.”

“Seriously, it’s so tight,” Lance marveled, his other hand coming down to fold over one of the Blade’s narrow hips a moment before slipping around to glide across his stomach, careful not to let his fingers stray too low, tempting as it was. “I bet I could bounce a quarter off it.”

“You’ll figure out how tight once we get outta here,” Keith reminded, but he didn’t exactly make any motion to, y’know, wrap up the shower, seemingly content with Lance touching him like this for the moment. “Do **not** try the quarter thing.”

“Cool cool cool,” the Blue Paladin responded distractedly as his fingers slid in and the tip of his index finger bravely, but lightly, rubbed over the Blade’s entrance. 

“This okay?” he asked quietly, his voice barely rising over the patter of falling water, his mouth close to the Blade’s ear.

“...yeah,” Keith responded just as softly. “S’okay.” The next noise was a long sigh when Lance pressed a little firmer at the same time he kissed a line up the side of Keith’s neck. 

The Blade’s fingers stole back to sift into the Blue Paladin’s hair again, this time not pulling, only idly carding through it with each slow motion of Lance’s fingers against him. 

“Ah...God…” the word tumbled from the Blade’s lips, a curse and invocation in one. “Ohhh.”

Lance’s eyes widened; okay, this was feeling a little different now. Not quite as rushed and pants-dropping hot as it had been. It had turned kinda soft, even if they were just two naked dudes about to get down and dirty. Something about the leisurely way Keith arched against him, not wanton, more sensual, made it feel inexplicably more intimate. 

Lance wasn’t sure what he was supposed to think about that, or if he should be thinking at all. 

Just doing this, and keep doing it forever so Keith kept making those little breathy sighs sounded like the best idea possible.

Lance turned his face into Keith’s wet hair, lips pursed against his temple before his tongue flickered out again and traced the shell of his ear just as the tip on one finger pressed a little harder, not quite breaching the Blade, but a definite hint. 

“Mmmm,” Keith hummed as his hips arched back again, trying to chase that pressure.

“Holy...so hot, Keith,” Lance whispered, looking over his shoulder down the length of his body, the rise and fall of his chest as the Blade’s breathing turned heavy, pale fingers of one hand pressed over Lance’s spread just below his navel, his cock hard and incredibly tempting. Keith’s other hand left the Blue Paladin’s hair to press into the tile as though to hold himself steady.

“Lemme...please...I want to so bad…Keith, can I...” 

“Yeah, yeah, c’mon,” Keith nodded loosely, eyes still closed, apparently more than willing to agree to whatever vague thing the Blue Paladin just proposed.

Lance didn’t hesitate, immediately sliding down Keith’s back, mouth dragging down his spine, to follow tracks of water as it spilled over pale skin until he was tonguing the dimples on either side of that amazing butt.

“Lan- ah!” Keith’s voice was cut off by a sharp inhale when Lance’s licked over him. Immediately the Blade’s other hand rose to slap against the shower wall and his back arched, pushing his hips back.

Well if that’s wasn’t the biggest, brightest green light Lance ever saw then he was an Ariellian krelshi! 

Tanned fingers gripped deliciously firm cheeks to spread them a bit more and Lance happily buried his face between them, the flat of his tongue swiping wet and firm in a way that clearly met the Blade’s approval because Keith moaned low and loud.

“Lance!” 

Ooh, he could get used to hearing Keith say his name like that. So he did it again and, to his delight, it knocked another echo of his name from the Red Paladin. Only a few swipes of his tongue and he felt Keith’s thighs tense, knocking against his shoulders. 

“Fuck fuck...Lance...your t-tongue…” Keith ground out in a way that sounded nearly pained, even as his hips pushed back to practically ride the Blue Paladin’s mouth.

Distantly, Lance wondered if he could get Keith to come just from this. Something he was definitely going to try later, right now he was too busy gleefully suffocating between the Blade’s rock hard thighs. When he pointed his tongue to prod at the Blade’s entrance a hand shot back to grab blindly at him until it landed on his head, then Keith was riding his mouth, using his tight grip in the Paladin’s short hair to keep him **right there** as the Blade took his pleasure.

“Yeah yeah….yeah! Fuck! Lance there yeah there...c’mon nrgh!” Keith was downright pornographic the way he panted the Blue Paladin’s name between swears and demands for more. One of Lance’s hands slid lower, dipped between Keith’s wonderfully thick legs; he feathered his fingers over the Blade’s balls and felt them draw up tight almost instantly.

“No no no stop stop!” Keith’s fingers clenched down hard in his hair and practically tore Lance off him, yanking him away as the Blade spun around and his wet back slapped against the shower wall.

“What the heck, Keith? You got something against getting off!?” Lance complained from where he landed on his butt on the floor, looking offended.

“No!” The Red Paladin shouted. Quickly he realized that was a lot angrier sounding than he intended, and he put a hand out to haul Lance up, immediately slipping an arm around Lance’s waist and planting his lips on his neck. 

“Sorry sorry...can’t come yet. Bed bed c’mon bed.” 

He practically bullied the blue Paladin backwards out of the shower in a rush, and Lance’s hand flailed out to slap off the water before he was shoved out of range.

“Okay! Okay, towels! Towels, Keith! I don’t want to wet sheets!” Lance laughed as the Blade was reduced to half sentences and apparently lost his verbs, even going so far as to growl when Lance extricated himself to quickly dry off. He flung a towel at Keith’s head for it.

“Don’t growl at me...actually, nevermind, it’s kinda hot.” Lance quickly swiped down his body and wrapped the towel around his waist before he backed out of the bathroom, eyeing the Red Paladin appreciatively as Keith hastily dragged his own towel over his chest twice and scuffed it over his head hard for a few tics before he threw it on the floor and stalked after him.

*************************************************************************************************

 

Lance clutching his hand like a lifeline wasn’t a problem, it was the insufferably smug looks the Green and Yellow Paladin gave each other before levelling Keith matching smirks that bothered him. He used his free hand to draw his hood up in a vani effort to hide the flush still riding high on his usually pale cheeks.

If they figured out he and Lance were together that was one thing, they were his friends, and the worst the Blade expected was some ribbing. But they weren’t together. Lance and he were….something. As yet unnamed, if it ever would be. But what he’d just done to Lance, what he quietly hoped they’d continued to do once they returned to the Castle, that was private. 

Keith was fiercely protective of the few things he considered his: his Marmoran Blade, the Red Lion, his friends, Shiro and Lance in particular. Especially Lance, even if the Blue Paladin wasn’t entirely aware of it. 

When the tanned teen pulled away from him to haul on his armor the Blade shrank back half a meter, already leaning in the direction of the exit, away from prying eyes and music so loud he’d have to fight to hear another sweet moan from the Blue Paladin. He pointed at his belt when Lance leaned over looking distractedly for it while also shooting a smirk at the Blade. 

When Lance went to ruffle Pidge’s hair and high five Hunk, only to be rebuffed with a not at all subtle dig at what it was clear the two had been up to when they disappeared, the Blade felt the heat in his face flare to life again and his desire to escape doubled.

“Say goodbye, Lance,” he growled firmly as he grabbed the teen’s hand once more and this time he was the one doing the dragging, artlessly hauling the Blue Paladin through the crowd and out onto the street. 

For a moment he feared leaving behind the noisy club, the anonymity of the crowds, for the quieter side streets would make the silence between them awkward as they jogged in the direction of the Red Lion at the edge of the city.

But each time he dared a look over at Lance he found azure eyes on him and a little smile tugging at the Blue Paladin’s mouth as he matched the Blade’s hurried footsteps down increasingly empty streets. The sun was down now, dusk long past, and the hectic, excited buzz that had filled Olkarion’s capital during the day had softened to a murmur as night lowered and the sky deepened to vermillion.

When they finally came to the paws of Red Keith held his breath a tic as they passed through her particle barrier, something inside him lurching in fear he would be shut out, his place in Voltron gone for good. Lance didn’t hesitate as he lead him through, apparently not a moment’s doubt the Blade still belonged. As the great beast lowered her head the Blue Paladin dropped Keith’s hand to gesture him to go ahead with a little bow.

“...hey, girl,” the Blade whispered as he took his first step onto her ramp in months, fingers trailing over smooth metal of her jaw. 

“She’s happy to see you,” Lance relayed cheerily, humming as his booted feet tapped up the ramp behind Keith.

“Yeah, I know, I can hear h-” Keith paused, eye widening as he looked over his shoulder. “Why can I still hear her? You’re her Paladin.”

“Nah,” Lance laughed, flapping his hand at Keith to keep going up the ramp. “I’m her pilot, you’re her Paladin.” 

The Blade didn’t move, his gaze on the Blue Paladin’s face, relaxed and smiling. To Lance it was that simple. He didn’t replace Keith as Shiro’s right hand, he simply occupied the space, did the job, wonderfully too, until it was time to step aside and slide back into his rightful place as the foundation of Voltron. 

With Blue because he was blue. His armor, his eyes, the way he was calm before the storm of battle, how he became a fierce and raging tide, drowning the enemy with wave upon wave of sniper fire. How his presence lapped at the edges of the Blade, softened his edges. Lance was blue, boundless, deep, and pulling Keith deeper with every swell of his inimitable tide.

Keith hadn’t been replaced, Lance only filled the void he’d left behind, fluidly filling out the empty space until the Blade returned and became the Red Paladin once more. Then Lance would filter away, trickle down to shore him, Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge up again one day

Lance made it clear Keith still belonged. With Voltron, in Red, darting among quasars and flitting the rim of gravity wells. Even if right now he wore grey and purple and fought in the cold, quiet spaces between riotous battle, and Lance flew in streamers of crimson, breathing fire and burning battlecruisers down to slag that spiralled away into deep space.

Lance hadn’t taken Red from him, he was “keeping the jumpseat warm,” keeping her company, keeping Keith’s place in Red, in Voltron, the echoing corridors of the Castle, overflowing with his vibrance until the Blade would return.

Fuck, as if Keith didn’t have it bad enough for the Blue Paladin already, Lance had to go and say something like that.

Keith was tempted to say something too. Something that scared and thrilled him at the same time, that made his breath seize and his blood rush the way it did when he drove his hoverbike off that cliff to escape the Garrison’s clutches and started this whole thing. That made him feel like he was falling, falling, helpless to the pull of gravity until what was real, what was truly important in his small life, reasserted itself and he was weightless, flying again.

But Keith couldn’t say it, not now, not when today, tonight was about something else. Something new, something starting that would make saying that less frightening one day, a little more natural when he did, inevitably, blurt it out.

So instead Keith said, “That mean you’re going to let me fly her?”

Lance’s smile was brilliant as a star. “Like she’d like me pilot now that you’re back.” Again, Keith was tempted to say it. “Besides, we both know you can’t wait to get your hands on the stick.” The Blue Paladin gave him a lewd look along with a cocked eyebrow.

Nevermind, the urge was gone, replaced with the more familiar desire to quip right back. 

“Gross. Starting to rethink letting you fuck m-”

“Bip bip bip!” Keith chuckled when the Blue Paladin’s snapping fingers flickered right under his nose. “Can’t unsuck it, mullet! Go ahead and resign yourself to a night of sexy funtime.”

Well, he wasn’t going to argue with that. Ever.

It still felt a little surreal, but Lance was right there, saying it was happening, had happened, would happen again in a few doboshes, and that gave Keith the courage to grin at him. Maybe even slide his hand over the Paladin’s ass as he passed him. The overplayed gasp Lance gave at his move made him smile wider. 

When Keith slid into the seat, he felt a wave of approval, soundless, wordless envelope him.

_Hey, Red. I missed you too._

The Red Paladin took a few moment to savor the sensation of the seat sliding forward to the controls, the familiar slip of his fingers over the grips, the soothing flicker of his Lion coming to life for him, feeding him data on the environment of Olkarion, her systems, the orbital track of the Castle far above them, anticipating his needs and providing as she always had.

Flying Black was nothing like this. The Blade had always felt Black held something back from him, not maliciously, but there was a distance between them he’d never experienced with Red. Something that kept them from melding so effortlessly the way he did with the fierce, fast scarlet cat. Keith felt like he didn’t have to reach out to Red to connect her; all he had to do was step into her presence and she was all around him, warming him like sun falling over his skin, lighting him up from the inside.

If that joy, the feeling of coming home, leaked from him in the form of a definite whoop of elation...well, Lance would understand. The Blue Paladin routinely shouted in excitement when Blue did something spectacular.

It was no wonder that he took the scenic route up to the Castle, detouring briefly with spectacular spirals over the vast mountainous landscape of Olkarion, looping up into the upper atmosphere and following the curve of the alien, gorgeous planet below him, before he aimed for the sliver of space between its twin moons as they crossed each others’ orbital path. Red responded as beautifully as she ever did, blazing a trail between stars, flying in twisting, sinuous spirals that defied gravity, inertia, made the laws of physics negotiable in a way that had his heart pounding.

When Red touched down the Blade’s pulse hadn’t slowed, if anything it seemed louder than ever in his ears as he eased from the pilot’s chair and rounded on Lance, hand landing on his side to bully him up against the nearest bulkhead. He tried to go for Lance’s neck but the solid collar of his Paladin armor thwarted him, so the Blade’s deft finger found a latch and flipped it.

“C’mon, Keith, not here,” the Blue Paladin protested, although not very strongly.

“You sucked me off in a closet, this is way more private,” he pointed out as he tugged at Lance’s belt. He wanted at that dark skin again, now, to leave a trail of his touch across it.

“Not in front of Red, I’m not a fan of an audience,” the Blue Paladin said more forcefully, grabbing the Blade’s hands firmly and pulling them off.

“C’mon,” Keith coaxed, fixing Lance with a heated look. “She likes you.”

“That’s not helping! Come on, a couple of doboshes and we’ll be in my room, or your room. It’s just the way you left it.” Keith internally scoffed, not like there was anything he left behind to mess up. 

But he wanted to change that. He knew it was already changing, that when he left this time there would be something, someone left behind. He didn’t intend to leave a void behind him this time.

“I got stuff in my room,” the Blue Paladin hinted.

Alright, Keith was finding less reasons to push the Blue Paladin up against cold metal and break him apart. Lube, more room that the cramped cockpit of a Lion, yeah, he could do that. He wanted to spread Lance out under him, over him, and take his time, unspool the Blue Paladin until he was lax and sated and clinging to him.

Before he could agree Lance had already wormed out of his grasp and hurried down the jaw ramp, waving to Keith to come on as he looked around, ostensibly checking for anyone else on the Castle. Keith followed quickly, listening for the fall of any footsteps besides their own, his Galran hearing picking Coran’s footsteps well before he came across them. 

“Stuff huh?”

“Ay, shut it. Aliens have needs, and lube is one of them. And out here we’re the aliens, Keith.” He had a point.

Tempted as Keith was to push Lance into an alcove, press up against him, he reigned in increasingly urgent impulses, at least until the lift doors closed behind them then, he moved in again.

“Keith!” the Blue Paladin chuckled, trying to fend him off again. “Be happy I’m not gonna use my facial moisturizer. That’s not hygenic. Whoa, hey!” Keith grinned at the startled, but pleased, noise, as he flipped the other latch of the Paladin’s chest plate, so close to just yanking it off, privacy be damned. “C’mon 30 tics and we’ll be in my room, then we can do stuff.”

“You could at least call it fucking,” he muttered as went for a spot high on Lance’s neck, just under his ear and managed to drag his tongue over it to elicit a shattered gasp from the Blue Paladin before he was suddenly caught in a surprisingly strong armlock. 

The last thing he saw before Lance shoved him into the opposite wall of the lift just as the doors opened was his dazzling grin as he took off running. The Blade didn’t know if it was a Galran urge or just a very sexually frustrated human one that had him growling as he gave chased, his feet swiftly darting down slick halls in pursuit. He took a corner too sharply and had to slap a hand out to keep from slamming into a wall as Lance gained ground, damn those long legs.

By the time he caught up the Blue Paladin had already disappeared into his own quarters and was practically chucking his torso armor across the room as the Blade stepped in and hit the security lock behind him. He advanced on Lance, hands reaching out, intent on shoving him down on the bed and wrecking him.

“Ah ha nah!” The Blue Paladin once again halted the Blade’s progress with a gauntlet shoved into his chest plate. “Keith, much as I appreciate, from the bottom of my horny heart, your enthusiasm we’ve been fighting all day and partying all night.” He sighed and let go of the gauntlet, which left the Blade holding it. “I really need a shower first.” He almost looked regretful saying it, but he had a point.

Keith hadn’t noticed, minded, earlier the Blue Paladin had been sweaty, hell it was exciting, a little dirty, and he’d been caught up in finally getting his hands on him. But a varga had passed since the rush, the heat, the frantic need to strip Lance’s suit off and get his mouth on him, and Keith suddenly was reminded he also wasn’t...all that fresh.

“You could join me,” Lance offered and that sealed it. Keith was all on board and he nodded, dropping the Paladin armor on the floor, his own chest plate shortly following.

“I am feeling a little gross,” he confessed as he raked his fingers through his hair. “Long day, and Semfama was incredibly hot. Tropical planet.” And he’d been drenched in a cold flop sweat at his near death. He ranked his hands through his hair, his fingers tangling with his mask module as he worked to pull it free.

“Any beaches?” Lance queried as he dropped more armor unceremoniously and Keith’s eyes stayed fixed on him as he stripped. 

Keith dropped the module on the desk with a click then peeled his suit down to his waist. “Didn’t get a chance to sightsee. I was a little busy helping take that weapon,” he pointed out. He rolled his shoulders with a sigh, damn it felt good to be getting out his suit finally. And yeah, he could smell himself, so a shower was definitely overdue. A long one, a luxury he didn’t have with the Blades. Like everything else they did, hygiene was performed efficiently and quickly before one moved on to the next critical task.

He watched as Lance strolled into the bathtoom, bare to the waist once more, and the Blade eyed his strong back. The breadth of his shoulders, the tapering line that lead to a slim waist Keith could vividly picture his legs clenched around. Keith continued to stare, admiring the lankiness of Lance’s frame, the muscles rolling subtle under the surface as he stretched out to touch the pad to activate the shower.

“By the way, nice job commandeering the Ziaforge canon,” the Blue Paladin called as he rolled the inky material down his legs.

The Blade nearly swallowed his tongue as he watched Lance bend over. He had confirmation what he suspected in the dim light of the club’s janitorial closet: no tan lines anywhere. And that ass. 

Fuck, it was nearly enough to make the Blade rethink his bottom stance. But then he remember that cock, caught a glimpse of it swaying heavily between the Paladin’s legs as Lance stepped under the water, and Keith figured he’d revisit that notion another day.

“Thanks. Shiro told me what you did on Naxzela,” he responded, mouth a little dry as he hurriedly finished stripping and went to the entry of the bathroom, content to lean against the doorway a few moments and look his fill.

“Hm? What did I do?” the Blue Paladin queries as he cupped his hands before bringing them to his face, sluicing water down the planes of his cheeks, trickling off the tip of his nose, from his lips. Keith want to drink him up.

“That as soon as those towers came online you said Voltron should get off planet. You’ve got good instincts,” Keith commended, fingers sifting down his chest, his stomach, tracing the thin skin from his hip to his hardening cock, never quite touching it as he continued to observe the Blue Paladin, his eye skimming down those long legs, admiring the sold expanse of his thighs and imagine them shifting, bunching, loosening as those sharp hips slithered against him.

“Eh, it was common sense. There were mines and Galra battleships, who wouldn’t want to get off that pla-”

The Blade wasn’t interested in another self-deprecating dismissal from the Blue Paladin. It was annoying how Lance used to be so full of braggadocio over the silliest of things, but now, when it truly mattered, when what he did made all the difference to an entire galaxy, he brushed aside his contributions as though they were nothing. And it wasn’t false modesty. 

Keith knew, had known since that day the Blue Paladin had come to him and offered to step aside, Lance didn’t take his position with Voltron for granted. He would always offer to do what he thought was best for the team, even at the expense of his own position. Because despite all the incredible, stunning things he’d accomplished, his ability to bond with multiple lions, his skill with his bayard, his fearlessness even in the face of true terror, Lance, at heart, still thought he was just a cargo pilot, second class. Not good enough.

Keith’s mouth twisted into a brief frown as he considered that, and his own inability to probably ever explain to the Blue Paladin just how wrong he was. 

So he used action, as the Blade always did, and slipped under the steaming stream of water with the object of his long-held desire and pressed close to him, fingers curling around that trim waist like he’d yearned to for so long.

“I know what you said to Allura to get her to power up Voltron so you could reach escape velocity,” he muttered into the nape of the Blue Paladin’s neck before he sealed his mouth there. Shit, his skin was smoother than Keith had thought possible, and he’d thought about it quite a bit.

Lance made a soft noise, a bitten off thin moan that prompted the Blade to move his lips a few centimeters to the side and repeat the action, tongue slicking over damp flesh, tasting water, the sour tang of sweat quickly washing away.

“So shut up and take the compliment,” the Blade murmured right by Lance’s ear before the tip on his tongue trailed the curve of it and the shiver that earned had Keith rolling his hips meaningfully against Lance’s ass. The fingers ridged over the Paladin’s hips edged inward, the Blade intent on stroking him to full hardness and quickly.

His finger barely grazed that impressive cock before Lance squirmed in his embrace and managed to turn, pressing a hand flat against the Blade’s chest. Keith made a noise of protest as he was pushed back. 

No no no, further away was a terrible idea, he’d waited so long and he’d barely had a two doboshes of being pressed full body against Lance.

“Yeah, we’re big heroes. Let me reward you.”

Keith was a proud being, always had been, although much of it was a cover for the distance he felt between himself and everyone else, space he’d put there in self-defense. But his pride served him little good when the Blue Paladin levelled him with a dangerous smirk before leaning in to lick a swatch up the Blade’s neck before sucking hard in a way that had the shorter teen’s knees suddenly unlock and threaten his ability to stand.

“Fuck! Lance,” he groaned. He’d been so intent on touching the Blue Paladin, learning his shape, his taste he’d not given much thought to receiving that same touch. And when it came it was...overwhelming.

A lifetime of isolation, leaning away when others leaned in, would do that.

Lance deft, slim fingers spidered into his hair again and tugged, and Keith’s lips parted on a gasp. The Blade’s hands found broad shoulders, swept the breadth of them, rolled down their slope and clutched at dark skin when that laughing, smirking mouth tracked down his neck, his collarbones, his chest. 

Keith felt the shift and play of muscles under his fingers and knew Lance was more than strong enough to keep him upright, steady. The notion he could pick Keith up, fuck him against the wall, had the Blade shuddering.

“C’mon Lance. Shit...don’t dick around,” he groaned as the Blue Paladin’s lips skimmed his shoulder, clever hands floating down the Blade’s sides. It was already too much, and not nearly enough, and Keith was starting to feel tense, bordering on frantic to get this show on the road, get that fantastic cock in him.

The Blue Paladin’s response, a swift move to snake his arms around Keith's waist and haul him flush against Lance had Keith’s head canted back with a groan. Too many points of contact for him to parse out every sensation, but all of them making him harder than he could remember being in a very long time. The desire to simply bury himself in this embrace, shove his face into Lance’s shoulder and ride the hard ridge of his thigh so tempting.

“So rude,” the Blue Paladin huffed quietly. “And here I am being nice. So let me, okay?” He pressed Keith against the wall again, chest to chest, before those long legs bent and Lance’s confident smirk dipped out of Keith’s view as violet eyes fixed on the ceiling.

He’d planned to wreck the Blue Paladin and instead he was barely holding it together from a few glides of Lance’s lips, a scant flitter of a touch down his chest as the tanned teen’s tongue licked a trail of fire down.

Keith was so screwed. 

Awesome.

He lost track of what he said, but so many of Lance’s deft touches wrung a litany of quite groans and gritted out words. 

“More.” 

“Bite me.”

“Yeah, harder.”

“Your fucking tongue.” 

That last one was delivered with a hitch in Keith’s breathing as Lance’s knees finally hit the floor of the shower and he looked up at Keith through wet fringe, blue eyes wide and appreciative in a way that had the Blade glad the heat would cover the blush he knew rode high on his cheeks.

“Working out totally pays off,” the Blue Paladin said with a daring smile as his fingers traced the dips and hard planes of Keith’s stomach just before he buried his face in it. It felt like each touch of the Blue Paladin remolded Keith into a new shape that fit around him, only him. 

The brush of a smooth cheek against his stomach had it hollowing out as the Blade sucked in a quick breath. The glide of soft fingertips along the etched line that dragged in from his hip prompted Keith to arch off the wall, his body unconsciously following that touch as it slipped away. The warm velvet of Lance’s tongue traced nonsensical designs over the Blade’s skin, sigils only the Blue Paladin could read, ones Keith would never forget.

The Blade’s calloused fingers wound into damp brown hair, stroking over the curve of the Paladin’s skull, following the slow sway of it as Lance explored Keith’s body in a way the pale teen had never experienced. Before, the few times before, it had always been hurried, the goal the only thing that mattered, getting off, getting away shortly thereafter. There’d been no desire, no burning need to learn the varied terrain of another’s body; now that he experienced it Keith wasn’t sure that whatever he’d done before had actually been anything at all. 

The sounds these meandering, exploratory caresses dragged from Keith were foreign to him as an newly discovered planet, unknown to anyone but the Blue Paladin as his mouth trailed down. Past the Blade’s navel, following the subtle trail under it, tongue flickering out to taste…

Keith’s fingers clamped down on Lance’s hair and he bit his tongue to hold out. Just a little longer.

“Okay OW,” the Blue Paladin huffed as he batted the Blade’s hand off his head.

“Fucking don’t,” Keith warned, trying to reign his need in. He’d done it for months, nearly a year, he could hold out a few more doboshes but not if Lance’s wrapped those pink, smirking lips around him.

“C’mon, I promise I know what I’m doing,” the tanned teen pleaded, actually pleaded, and that nearly did Keith in more effectively than the threat of that soft tongue undulating over his cock.

“I’ll come in a couple of tics, alright?!” the Blade ground out gruffly, embarrassment lacing his words. He might be a disciplined Blade of Marmora, a former and hopefull soon again a Paladin of Voltron, but he was also only 19 years old and trying really hard not to lose all control and simply shove face of the guy he’d been fucking pining over forever down on his cock and come down his throat instantly.

Keith liked to think that even if he didn’t any class, at least he wasn’t a completely selfish bastard in bed.

The Blue Paladin had the gall to cutely pout up at him and Keith sighed. “I’m...I’m too worked up,” he confessed. Lance had done that to him with so little. “I need a couple of doboshes...please.”

“Ugh, fine, but I’m totally going down on you later,” Lance grumbled as he got off his knees and flicked the end of Keith’s nose, like that was some sort of menacing threat.

Keith couldn’t help the crooked smile he felt bloom over his face at that. “Sure, later,” he promised before turning his back on the Paladin and reaching for the soap dispenser on the wall, relieved to be given a little time to get his shit together before he embarrassed himself.

Lance was not making it easy, not that the Blade protested too much, although the delicate touch of his fingers to his back nearly made him flinch because he didn’t expect it. It took the Blade a few tics to realized the Blue Paladin was smoothing soap down his spine.

“I can wash myself,” he grumbled.

“Mm, I know, but this is nice,” Lance hummed amicably, apparently oblivious that pretty much everything he was doing was as damaging to Keith’s self control as lips, teeth grazing his most sensitive spots. 

How could the Blue Paladin possibly know the way his warm palms seemed to span the breadth of the Blade’s shoulders so easily made Keith bite his lower lip? That the smooth, slippery circles traced down his flanks, around his waist, made him shudder in a way that ran deeper than any orgasm he’d previously had? That when those long, tan fingers slid around his waist, journeyed up his chest, silently coaxing the Blade to lean back into the Paladin, he felt more exposed, more vulnerable than being flung into the vacuum of space without a ship. 

Keith sighed as the usual rigidity with which he held himself gradually loosened under Lance’s sure hands.

“Good?” the Blue Paladin queried softly.

Keith didn’t even realized his head had lolled back to rest against his shoulder until he spoke, the Paladin way too good at lulling him into a relaxed near-stupor. When those clever fingers lightly scratched down the Blade’s chest he sighed, long and languid. “Mmm great.”

When had anyone touched him like this? In a way that wasn’t calculated to wind him up, get him off, but simply to experience his skin, the way his rib cage expanded under the hand that lay lightly over his sternum, learn the subtle arch of his lower back.

Never. No one ever had. Until now.

“Lance,” he sighed, so quiet he didn’t think the Paladin heard him. The next time he sighed the Paladin’s name it got lost in a thin moan when Lance’s hands landed on his ass and squeezed. 

Shit, Keith really needed to quit being a self-indulgent prick and just get out of the shower, throw Lance on the bed, and climb on his dick. Except he didn’t, not yet, he wanted to stay right here a while longer, bracketed in the Paladin’s arms just like this.

“Dude, you’ve got the nicest ass.” Fuck, when did Lance’s voice get so low? It rumbled in his chest and the Blade felt it travel through him. Even a stupid compliment on his ass sounded hot as hell. Keith was in over his head.

“Don’t call me dude when you’re groping me,” the Blade grumbled quietly, keeping his eyes closed because he wasn’t sure he couldn't take looking directly at the Paladin right now, not with the way he was touching him like he was something more delicate than a Blade of Marmora, like something important that should always be handled with care. Something, someone with value.

“Bet I could bounce a quarter off it, so tight,” the Blue Paladin teased with a hint of laughter to that smoky tone that poured in Keith’s ear like dark honey.

“You’ll find out exactly how tight,” the Blade offered. Lance wasn’t the only one who could throw down an innuendo, except Keith pretty much never did it. Today was, clearly, full of firsts.

Keith sighed again when he felt lips on his neck, a tongue working over his pulse point and he wondered if Lance could feel how quickly it beat, how frantic it was in danger of becoming. The Blue Paladin had to because when those damned fingers pressed lightly at his entrance, it kicked up double-time.

“This okay?” Keith felt Lance's breath against his damp skin and the resulting shiver raised goosebumps along his arms. One hand rose of its own accord and wandered back to thread fingers once more into the Blue Paladin’s hair, keeping his mouth right there.

“S’okay,” he whispered. “...oh...oh God.” The first firm press of Lance’s fingers had Keith’s toes curling against the metal floor. The next, accompanied by the Paladin’s lips skirting the plane of the Blade’s cheek to rest at his temple had him groaning. “Mmmmm Lance.” Keith’s back arched, pressing his ass back, wanting more, more pressure, more fingers, more of this blue eyed boy.

“Keith, please,” the Blue Paladin urged his lips now at his ear, tongue gliding out to break him just that bit more. “Let me.”

He nodded quick, sharp, agreeing to anything, everything, whatever Lance wanted he could have it, including his luxite blade, if he only asked.

The Blade quickly realized his imagination was sorely lacking as he absolutely did not except Lance to slither down his back, quickly dragging his mouth down his spine, then press his tongue against his entrance with a deliriously happy moan.

“Lan-wha-? Oh fuck!” Another first, and holy quiznak, Keith was now firmly convinced he’d never really had sex before because this felt incredible and he still didn’t have Lance’s dick in him. Both of the Blade’s hands slapped the metal wall of the shower as he leaned into it, hips canting back as he unconsciously, shamelessly offered himself up Lance’s talented tongue.

It only took a doboshes before Keith was convinced the Blue Paladin was either a complete deviant or a sexual savant because when Lance firmed his tongue and licked hard enough to nearly breach him, Keith’s hand shot back to clamp into the tan teen's hair. Before he knew it the Blade was swearing loudly the praises of the Paladin’s gorgeous mouth and brazenly riding his face. 

“Fuck...there there...Lance...more,” Keith groaned. He knew he was loud, but he didn’t care, he wanted the Blue Paladin to hear how he affected him, how he’d always affected him. The choked rasp of his own breathing, the indecently luscious noises Lance made between his thighs, the squeak of his own hand smearing down the damp wall. The Blade heard it all and wanted to burn the soundtrack into his memory, every part of this, so he could relive it on quiet, lonely nights. 

The patter of the water of his skin, the dig of Lance’s fingers into his cheeks, the brush of his broad shoulders as they pushed Keith’s legs apart, the feathery touch of those fingers sliding in, brushing over his balls, skimming the underside of his co-

“No no stop stop!” Keith bit down on his tongue hard when he felt his balls tighten up immediately, the orgasm threatening to overtake him, wreck him, and leave him a heaving mess on the shower floor.

“What the hell, Keith?!” The Blade blinked down a Lance sitting on the floor with a irritably confused expression “Do you have something against getting off?”

Shit, apparently he shoved Lance off him. Keith really needed to get himself under control, or at least get them horizontal so he wasn’t in danger of slamming the Paladin into a hard surface because the Blade was terrible at explaining himself.

“I’m...I’m sorry!” Keith exclaimed, immediately leaning down to grab Lance’s hands, yank him to his feet and into his arms. He apologized the only way he knew, with action, burying his face into the Blue Paladin’s neck, latching a tight grip on his hips and trying to navigate them quickly out of the bathroom. “Bed, come on, Lance, bed, bed” he repeated like a skipping record. 

Enough of this teasing shit, the Blade resolved, no more sweet little touches that made him melt, fleeting presses of lips that made something in him burn hotter than a binary star. He needed to to regain some semblance of control over himself and remember his plan had been to fuck the Blue Paladin into oblivion, etch the memory of his passion into Lance so deep he could never forget it, that when Keith was gone the tanned teen would still feel his touch for quintents after.

Lance chuckled at Keith’s attempt to drag him out of the shower. “Towels! Keith, you savage! I don’t want wet sheets!” 

The Blade couldn’t help the Galran growl that sprung from his lips as Lance, slippery as an eel, wriggled from his grasp to snatch up towels and winged one at his face.

“Did you just growl at me? That is...kinda hot,” the Blue Paladin chuckled as he smiled at the Blade, leisurely rubbing the towel over acres of smooth, brown skin that Keith eyeballed with not-at-all disguised hunger. It almost pissed Keith off how seemingly unaffected Lance was when the Blade had been tics away from losing his fucking mind not a dobosh ago. But rather than get pissed the Blade only become more determined.

He deigned to scruff his own towel over his head twice then drag it down his body hurriedly as he glared at a smirking Lance who was backing away from him with a playful grin and a crook of his fingers to come and get it.

Keith didn’t know if it was simply being horny beyond belief or part Galra, but the instinct to hunt Lance down, shove him onto the nearest flat surface and ride him until he actually cried rose up strong and insistent as the Blade threw his towel on the floor and stalked towards him.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boi, ya gonna GIT IT.
> 
> Just the first part of a multi-chapter smut-fest coming at you.
> 
> If you enjoy please comment. Heck, if you like it enough I'm tempted to write an epilogue rather than leave this at the originally planned 8 chapters.

“Wuh-oh!” Lance was practically tackled to the mattress and we went with a grin, more than down for the manhandling. “Stuff’s in the headboard panel.” 

He pointed above his head and laughed again when Keith aggressively slammed his hand into the wall to pop it open. Feral Keith was pretty darn hot, and the Blue Paladin idly wondered if it was his Galra nature or if Lance had just gotten him so worked up he was getting a little wild. Lance decided to go with the latter.

His towel didn’t last long as the Blade yanked it off like it offended him. Lance was about to jokingly call him a brute again but then Keith swung his leg over Lance’s hips and the Blue Paladin suddenly wasn’t in the mood to tease him ever again. Quite the opposite actually because Keith knelt over him, and acres of bare skin and tempting muscles were now on full display, up close and personal. 

“Cripes...you’re stupid hot…” he complimented breathlessly as his hands landed on delectably hard thighs.

“Don’t touch my dick,” the Red Paladin warned as he flicked the cap off the lube with his thumb.

“C’mon, man! What is your deal?!” Lance griped, but he settled for smoothing his hands over Keith’s hips. They were boss; he had a sick V-cut that the Blue Paladin was definitely going to run his tongue over at some point, even if it meant digging up those space handcuffs and locking Keith’s hands out of the way or something. “I’m not gonna rip it off or anything. I like it a lot. Obviously!”

The Red Paladin drizzled lube over his fingers then dropped the bottle next to Lance’s head, and leaned over him, his forearm planted next to the Blue Paladin’s face as he reached back.

“S’not that…” A quiet, sharp inhale gave Lance a very good idea what the Blade was up to. “You ever played with your...mmm...ass?” he breathed, lashes fluttering as it became obvious the Blade was having a little bit of fun with himself. 

Lance’s eyes widened. Why the heck Keith asking him that made him so flustered when he’d been eating the Blade out three doboshes ago was beyond him. 

“Y-yeah, couple of times...uh…” 

His fingers slipped around the Blade’s waist to steal over his butt again, sliding back, and he swallowed when he touched Keith’s hand where he was screwing two fingers into himself. Quiznak, he wished he could see. 

“Ever get off from just that?” 

Lance shook his head, struck mute because, okay, the reality of this actually happening was catching up to him. He was a little afraid he’d snap awake in a healing pod with a super embarrassing boner in front of the team, or Keith would wise up and realize there was no way he should be fucking Lance and bounced.

“Prostate orgasms,” the Blade husked as his head dropped down, dark hair tickling Lance’s cheek, “do it right...fuck...you get off so much harder...shiiiiiit.” Keith moaned as his arm moved behind him again, the muscles in his shoulder working in a way that really got Lance’s motor revving into the red zone, and he craned up to lick sloppily over Keith’s skin. “Christ….you don’t even know how hard...but don’t touch your dick because if you...mmm...come like that it’s done….okay?”

Lance nodded more vigorously. That was a really fantastic idea, Keith getting off a hardcore sounded spectacular, and if Lance could help with that, and have some fun at the same time, he was totally on board. 

“Yeah, okay okay, sounds awesome. I can touch the rest of you, right?” He stared up at Keith, whose own gaze had gone a little hazy, lids at half-mast as those strange violet eyes fixed on the Blue Paladin’s face.

“Yeah, go nuts,” Keith mumbled before another groan trickled past his lips. Lance’s fingers spidered inward a little more, holding his cheeks apart, happy to lend a helping hand for Keith to stretch himself. At the same time the Blue Paladin wiggled down a few inches to fasten his mouth over Keith’s neck, then suck a hurried, somewhat sloppy trail down his chest. The wetter the better, that was Lance’s motto. And he wasn’t going to let Keith go back to the Blades without a few reminders of what he let Lance do to him; the Blue Paladin was 100% committed on that matter.

It didn’t hurt that it seemed like nearly everything Lance did met with Keith’s approval, given the thin moan that came from the Blade when the Blue Paladin left a dark mark high on his neck, or the muttered curse when his tongue flickered out to slick over a nipple. When Lance’s nails dragged against his lower back, over his butt, then the outside of his legs Keith swore and his free hand twisted into the sheets.

“Fuck...yeah...harder,” the Red Paladin encouraged with a shudder as Lance scored pink lines over tense thighs as Keith rocked back on three fingers now. 

“Don’t wanna hurt you,” Lance mumbled before turning his head to scrape his teeth over the other pink nub, sucking when it hardened under his lips.

“Shit...you won’t...c’mon...I like it…” Keith promised before he made a loud noise of approval when the Blue Paladin bit down more forcefully. “Oh shit, s’fucking perfect.” 

If Lance wasn’t already so hard he could probably knock down a battle droid with it, the noises Keith made would’ve done the job easily. The Blade was usually pretty reserved, and the emotions he most easily showed were annoyance, frustration, or bitterness. None of those made an appearance tonight, and Lance was witness to an unfamiliar and entirely amazing side to the Red Paladin he intended to burn into his memory forever. 

Keith so uninhibited was mind-boggling, and Lance would’ve flopped back and happily spent the rest of the night staring up at his face, the way it creased with desire, pleasure rather than anger, except...yeah Keith was sitting up straighter now and his hand was snaking around Lance’s junk.

“Tell me you’re clean,” the Red Paladin huffed raggedly, the flush on his usually pale face deeper than it had been all night, strange violet eyes wide and staring down at the tanned teen beneath him.

“Little late to be asking don’t you th-mmmmm!” The squeeze Keith gave his dick might have been a warning but it also felt really good, to the point the Blue Paladin’s eyes might have rolled back in his head a tic. 

Lance flung his hand out to fish blindly for the lube in the rucked up sheets, still staring up at the Blade, and their fingers tangled as they both fumbled for it. “I mean, yeah, and if I wasn’t before I figure the healing pods would’ve...oh cheese and crackers,” he blurted with a groan when Keith, swell guy he was, took the lube and leisurely jacked Lance slick with a smirk on his stupid hot face.

“Cheese and crackers? Really?” 

“Hey! I have 4 siblings and 2 grandparents in my house! You don’t swear unless you want a shoe upside your head!” Lance defended hotly, but it didn’t last long because, c’mon, other things were a priority at the moment. 

“S’fine...s’cute,” Keith huffed, looking away like admitting that was more embarrassing than the fact he was shuffling forward on his knees and guiding Lance back to rub against his rim a few times, a little tease.

“Ha, you think I’m cute,” Lance chuckled then choked because hollllllly mollllllly the Red Paladin slowly slid down on him. His fingers branded themselves to Keith’s thighs as he stared down the length of his body to where he could see himself gradually sinking into the Blade. “Oh my ...quiznak...Keith…”

“Finally,” the Blade sighed as he rose up an inch before rocking down again in minute increments, slowly working himself further open on Lance’s cock. “Fuck...jesus Lance…”

The Blue Paladin nodded, tongue dashing out wet his lips. For pete’s sake, Keith was **tight** , so tight it was easy to resist the urge to roll his hips up. He was dead set on not hurting the Blade and bringing this to a possible screeching and heart-breaking halt. Lance would absolutely and unashamedly cry if that happened.

Therefore Lance’s willpower was rock solid for the moment. He prayed he would be able to hang onto it for the long haul, but Keith was seriously challenging him because the Blade felt incredible, even better than he looked. Which was saying something because he was looking like sex incarnate at the moment with both his hands pressed against Lance’s chest as he worked those sick hips in a slow swivel that drove the tanned teen deeper into him one rock at a time, eyes slitted at the Paladin pinned under him and tongue smoothing over his lips leisurely, like he could taste the sex in the air.

“You okay?” Lance managed to say in a tight voice since he wasn’t, y’know, breathing currently. 

“Mm-hmm,” the Blade responded as he rolled his head back. “I’m...good...fuck...so good…” Keith snaked his hips again in a heart-stopping serpentine, and the two teens groaned in concert when Lance finally bottomed out.

One of the Blue Paladin’s hands left Keith’s hips and travelled to those pale hands pressed hard against chest, trickling up to Keith’s shoulder when the dark haired teen started a darn dirty grind.

“K-keith...holy crow...this...you f-feel...,” Lance breathed quietly, “Can I...what...what do you want me to do?” He didn’t know if he should move or let the Red Paladin keep up that heavenly grind and just lay there and take it. He was 100% on board with all of the above, anything to keep this going and stamp that blissed out look on the Keith’s face permanently.

The Blade didn’t respond right away, seemingly focused on the steady undulation of his pelvis that put his strong torso on display, the ripple of his abs as he rolled back, the harder press of his palms to Lance’s chest when he rocked forward. His eyes were closed now, the usual crease between his brows gone and his mouth slack. The tip of his tongue darted out once in a while to sweep over his lower lip before white teeth sunk into it. 

Lance wanted those teeth stinging his lips. 

“Fuck...Lance...nothing...s’good...shit you’re big mmmmm,” he hummed, and the Blue Paladin felt a swell of entirely unmerited pride because it’s not like he earned a big package for being a good student or an awesome pilot. But he’d take the compliment! 

“Just let me…just like this...this is good,“ the Blade whispered as he rose up on his knees a few inches then sank down quickly, letting gravity do the work, and his ass met the tops of the Blue Paladin’s thighs with a delicious smack that had both teens’ breath hitching.

“Yeah yeah okay okay,” Lance agreed nonsensically, his eyes locked on Keith’s face like a laser, even if his eyelids wanted to flutter closed at the next mind-bending motion of the Blade on his lap. 

Keith undulated, biting into his lower lip as he ground filthily down on the Blue Paladin, completely focused on his pleasure with each slow rise followed by a hard slam down. The only sound in the room were the repeated gasps from both Paladins, the increasingly frequent curses from the Blade, and the delightfully dirty sound of flesh colliding. 

Lance was in unadulterated heaven, and he distractedly wished he had something smoother or sweeter to say than Keith’s name repeatedly like prayer. But, gosh, it felt so right trickling from his lips.

Soon the Red Paladin’s motions quickened and dark hair flung back from his face.

“Fuck fuck fuck yeah Lance there there there… FUCK!” It seemed the Blade found the angle he’d been searching for when he leaned back to plant a hand behind him on Lance’s thigh. His back arched in such exquisite way the Blue Paladin’s breath stumbed as he stared up at him.

“ _ **Dios mio**_.” Lance had never seen anything so ethereal. And he’d flown through nebula and floated in deep space.

It was only a few more hard, shuddering rocks of the Blade’s hips, practically writhing on the Blue Paladin’s cock with an expression on his face split between concentration and consuming pleasure, before Keith clenched down as a full body shudder rolled through him. 

Lance nearly choked on his tongue at the dizzying sensation as Keith shivered over him, his entrance squeezing hard around the Blue Paladin then releasing in a breathtaking flurry of contractions that had Lance’s fingers scratching up Keith’s arms up to loop around his neck and into his hair.

“Keith...oh my gosh! I-I can feel that,” Lance gasped distantly, his attention torn between the intense feeling of Keith coming on his cock, clenching and releasing around him so hard Lance would’ve definitely lost it if the Blade hadn’t the edge taken off earlier in the club, and the Red Paladin’s face as he squirmed with pleasure.

Keith nodded once, twice, a short sharp motion of his head and a veritable slew of curses flowed off his tongue as he...just...kept...going.

Lance, somewhere in the mess of running his hands over and over through dark, damp hair as Keith shivered and shifted his hips minutely to keep the Blue Paladin seated deep within, noted the Blade didn’t actually, y’know, blow his load. But he definitely got off. And hard, like, harder than Lance had ever seen. 

Keith looked like he’d left every last shred of inhibition and self-consciousness light years behind, the only thing showing on his face breathless, blissful satisfaction.

Lance would’ve been jealous, but, hey, he was currently deep in the hottest guy ever so he was doing A-OK.

When Keith’s previously frenetic motions slowed to lazier undulations, and he leaned forward again, hands moving off Lance’s chest to plant on the mattress on either side of his head, the Blue Paladin used shaky fingers to brush dark hair from his face.

“Uh...y-you good? You didn’t...did you? Do you want to…?” He glanced down between them where Keith’s undeniable hard-on hadn’t flagged in the least.

The slow, utterly relaxed smile that spread over the Blade’s face took Lance’s breath away in an entirely new way. Gosh, he was pretty. 

“Pros-mmmm….prostate orgasm...told you...s’different...holy shit I needed that…so bad.” Keith licked his lips and the Blue Paladin unconsciously mirrored it.

The Blade’s eyes definitely followed that slip of tongue, and he smirked as he slowly collected himself, still breathing heavily. “I can get off a few times like this.”

“You can?” Lance croaked, unsure if he was going to survive tonight. But he was absolutely on board with dying this way, as opposed to being blown to smithereens by the Galra. He was down with being blown by this particular Galra again, however.

Keith’s smirk turned downright dangerous, even more lethal than when he handed Lance’s butt to him in the training room. “Oh yeah.” He leaned down, his forearms coming in to box in the Blue Paladin’s head. “Long as you don’t touch my cock ‘till I say so.”

“That...that is the biggest turn on ever and also slightly terrifying,” Lance admitted, even as his hips flexed up again because, hello, still deep in stupid hot Keith Kogane, and both of the Paladins moaned quietly.

Keith answered it with another slow rock down. “Mmm yeah…” His voice firmed a little with his next words. “Okay, sharpshooter, now you can show me what you got. That’s if you got any gas left in the tank,” he tossed at the semi-dazed Blue Paladin with a taunting edge to his voice. 

Lance goggled up at the Blade, at a loss for a few moments, before the base instinct in him to meet to every challenge Keith leveled at him rose up strong and insistent. 

“Roger that, samurai,” he responded crisply as he planted his hands on the Blade’s waist and **moved**.

*********************************************************************************************

The delighted chuckle that burst from Lance as Keith bullied him down onto the mattress made the Blade want to drag more even more beguiling noises out of him. He popped the compartment over Lance’s head to find the lube, eyeing the two-thirds full oddly shaped container with suspicion for a moment, before shrugging. If it didn’t do its job Lance wouldn’t have kept it around.

He dropped it next to the Blue Paladin's face and yanked off his towel harder than strictly necessary, but the Blade was done fucking around. He wanted Lance naked and trapped under him and, with any luck, moaning hotly as soon as possible. To that end he quickly straddled the Blue Paladin and savored it when Lance’s blue eyes widened as he stared up at him. 

Keith was tempted to likewise indulge, take a few doboshes to let his eyes, hands roam all over the smooth skin...but honestly? He was desperate to get fucked more than anything. 

Seriously, they’d been pawing at each other with varying degrees of intensity and in all sorts of locations for the last two vargas and the Blade was about to lose his damn mind if he didn’t get Lance’s cock in him. 

All that patience yields focus shit was about to pay off. He’d been damn patience, waited for almost a year, and now all his attention was zeroed in on Lance’s face as Keith planted one hand on the mattress next to his head, hovering over him mere centimeters away as he swiftly started working one lube slicked finger in.

“You’re so hot,” the Blue Paladin murmured appreciatively, hands already feathering up the Blade’s thighs where they bracketed Lance’s hips.

“Don’t touch my dick,” he warned roughly before his attitude changed quickly enough when he realized Lance had loosened him a nice bit in the shower with that dexterous tongue, and he favored the Blue Paladin with a wanton look as he slipped in another finger. He groaned at the mild burn; he fucking loved it, wanted to feel every bit of it. 

“What is your deal!?” Lance complained, but kept his hands away from the proverbial danger zone, instead electing to fold strong, dark fingers over the Blade’s pale thighs then slide his thumbs in and up, tracing the V-cut of the Blade’s hips, which prompted goosebumps to break out over the pale teen’s skin. “Not like I’m gonna rip it off. I like it, obviously.”

The Blue Paladin gave Keith a shameless once over, eyes dragging down from his face, his chest to fixate on his cock, and when Lance licked his lips leisurely, like he savored the notion of Blade’s cock on his tongue, Keith caught himself mirroring that gesture. 

They were so close, he could lean down just a bit more and learn the taste of Lance’s mouth, how pliable his lips were, stroke the velvet of his tongue with his own.

But, yeah, that would be more foreplay, and Keith was 100% done with that. Plenty of time for that later, once he got what he desperately needed first. 

“You….mmmm...ever play with your ass?” the Blade hummed as his elbow folded and he landed on his forearm, bangs brushing Lance’s face as he continued to work himself open with determination. 

“Yeah, couple of times,” the Blue Paladin replied and those clever hands slid back, brushing against Keith’s and the Blade groaned when they landed on his ass and gripped hard, spreading him lewdly. He arched his back to finesse the angle and sighed in satisfaction when his middle finger managed to graze his sweet spot. 

The mental image of Lance, long legs spread wide and fingering himself. God, Keith wanted to see it. “Ever come from just that?” 

The Paladin shook his head and the Blade sucked in a breath when he felt those deft, slim fingers trail along his own, trace the edge of his rim. “P-prostate orgasms,” he stuttered when he felt the slightest additional pressure from the Blue Paladin’s fingers. If Lance slid one in alongside his own Keith knew he’d lose it entirely. 

“You get off so much h-harder...oh fuck...but don’t touch your dick...oh god,” the Blade moaned when Lance leaned up kiss over his shoulder then drag the tip of his tongue up his neck. 

Why’d he stop Lance from sucking him off earlier? The Paladin’s tongue was practically weaponized, it melted Keith so effortlessly. “If you come f-from that you’re d-done." The Blade shuddered again when Lance’s grip tightened, and he hoped he had handprint bruises there tomorrow. 

“Sounds awesome. I can touch you everywhere else, right?” the confident teen under him shot back immediately. The Blade couldn’t nod quickly enough, gritting his teeth against the more intense pressure of his third finger, his gaze fixed like a laser sight on the Lance’s wide azure eyes.

“Yeah, go nuts,” the Blade husked, and he nearly regretted it as Lance moved under him with a heart-stopping serpentine that enabled him to drag his lips wet and wonderfully messy down Keith’s neck, his chest, where he immediately latched on to a nipple, flicking the firm tip of his tongue back and forth over the peak in a practiced way that had Keith’s fingers fisting in the sheets as he rocked back on three fingers. “Oh christ, there.”

Manicured nails dug in and dragged pleasantly down the Blade’s firm thighs, leaving thin trails of fire in their wake, and Keith groaned louder, “Harder, yeah!”

“Don’t want to hurt you,” Lance voice murmured from where his mouth traced the solid plane of of the Blade’s pectoral.

“You won’t... _ **I like it**_ ,” the Blade promised with an edge to his voice. He wanted Lance to scratch him, mark him up, make him feel everything he did to him for quintents after, for Lance to make up in this one night for every pleasurable sensation Keith had missed out on for so long, the months he sat at a distance from the blue eyed Paladin, pointlessly denying himself, Lance, both of them all of this.

This closeness, skin sliding over skin, breath nearly shared as they panted each other’s names between one touch and the next, the undeniable heat between them that had nothing to do with the sweat once again prickling their skin. The Blade knew he wouldn’t be able to live without this, not that he now knew the Blue Paladin’s touch, the way his name sounded drizzling from Lance’s lips.

Keith groaned loud and long when Lance’s teeth nipped harder. A spark, an ignition along his nerve endings, jumbled up the signals to his brain and intensified the pleasure with a twinge of pain. “Fuck...perfect…” Keith knew he was rushing, the burn, the ache of four fingers starting to override the smooth touches of the Blue Paladin, and he didn’t care. He wanted everything and he wanted it **now**.

“Tell me you’re clean,” he demanded as he sat up, easing his fingers free and rifling through the sheets for the lube again. If the Blade was honest with himself, the answer didn’t really matter, he was that desperate. It would only be the most recent in a long line of rash choices he’d made that day.

“Little late to be as--AH! Keith!” the Blue Paladin gasped as his former teammate barely waited for an answer before generously slathering his cock with lube, knowing the more the better because he’d not taken nearly as much time as he probably should have to prep. Not with Lance being hung to the point the Blade knew he’d measure all dicks after tonight against this one.

“Yeah, I am...the healing pods would’ve taken care of anything if I wasn't,” the Blue Paladin muttered in a rush before he groaned as the Blade tightened his grip to stroke him a few more time, savoring how damn hard he was, how he could feel Lance’s cock throbbing in his grip before pressing it against his entrance. “Ohhhh cheese and crackers…”

Keith paused, one eyebrow cocked in amusement. “Really, Lance? Cheese and crackers?”

“Ay, shut it, I got a bunch of siblings and grandparents in my house. No swearing unless your want a sandal to the side of your head!” the Blue Paladin groused, even if the breathless expression on his face didn’t completely line up with his defensive words. 

“Whatever, it’s kinda cute,” the Blade admitted. He was such a goner, even the silly shit Lance said had him feeling a swell of affection that threatened to override his resolution not to respond in kind and say something even dumber, like how he was pretty sure he was a little, sort of, in love with brave, smartass, ridiculous Lance McClain.

“Haaaaaa,” the Blue Paladin sassed, “You think I’m cute.” Any further teasing was cut off sharp inhalation as the Blade bore down, sliding the first few inches of that gorgeous cock inside him. Then Lance’s tone change from joking to something that made the Blade melt with the full body flush that raced over him, it was nearly reverent. “Oh Keith...quiznak.”

Keith nodded shakily as he planted both hands on the Blue Paladin’s chest and rolled his hips in a sensual, liquid motion, back and forth, back and forth, eyes shut tight so he could better focus on the sensation. The stretch, the slow burn he couldn’t ignore, that reminded him with every little motion this was **real** , that it wasn’t another one of the torturous dreams he’d been plagued with of the Blue Paladin over him, under him, gasping out his name, only to wake up in the silence and cold.

A warm hand eased from his hip up over his chest. “You okay?” Lance queried quietly.

Keith’s eyes cracked open as he stared at the featureless bulkhead over his head, relishing the next tensing of his thighs that brought him up, the thick, plumy tip nearly leaving him, before he relaxed and let gravity take over and he was full, his body, his heart, his head was overflowing with Lance...with blue...with the tumultuous wave of emotions, yearnings, long held painful desires that resolved themselves into one, perfect, clarified thought.

 _FINALLY_.

“Fuck...good...I’m so...so good.” The Blue Paladin’s named might’ve been tangled up the groan that trickled past the Blade’s lips when he finally bottomed out. 

“Keith...you feel...what do you want me to do?” Smooth fingers reached up, into dark hair, the touch disconcertingly gentle.

He shook his head, “N-nothing,” he hummed as he once again lifted up, and this time he worked with gravity instead of being pulled along by it, and the tantalizing smack of flesh sounded profane, the Paladins’ twin moans even more so. 

“S’perfect...like this…” the Blade sighed as he ground down into Lance’s lap, hips snaking in a serpentine as he sought the perfect angle. “God...you’re so big...so good,” he panted as he felt a delirious smile crease his lips, repeating it like mantra. "So good..." 

Damp hair fell into his eyes as Keith blinked dreamily up at the ceiling, Lance filling him so perfectly. Fingers curled against the Paladin’s chest and dragged lazily down. 

When he felt the heady slide of Lance’s cock leaving him as he rose again, the Blade’s head rocked forward and strange eyes fixed on the Paladin’s blue gaze. Keith nearly couldn’t take the way Lance looked at him; it was the same expression he’d seen on the tanned teen’s face when he gazed at Blue or out the viewport as the Castle blazed past nebula and supernova, stunned, overwhelmed, amazed. 

So the Blade closed his eyes again and bit his lip, grinding down on the Blue Paladin. 

This he could do. He could take this mind-bending, decadent pleasure, the satisfying thickness, the caress of the Blue Paladin’s hands over his legs, dancing up his arms, fingers cupping the back of his neck before wandering into his hair. But he couldn’t take that look.

Keith leaned back, a rough, calloused hand landing hand on Lance’s thigh, and the Blade reeled, hips canting forward as he screwed himself intoxicatingly full. With each grind the Blue Paladin’s deliciously thick cock now slid perfectly against his prostate. 

“Fuck! Fuck there! Lance! Oh God there!” he chanted with each movement, thighs flexing hard to keep the sinuous rhythm. 

The Blade’s flung his head back when Lance drawled in Spanish, slow as molasses, hot as a Havana night.

He was lost. 

The Blue Paladin had lured him outside his previously safe boundaries, over unexplored horizons and swept him over the edge. The Blade surrendered, content to be tossed, rudderless, into azure depths.

Wordless moans pours from Keith's lips, punched out of him with each furious, sweeping wave of pleasure, his body shuddering over the Blue Paladin’s, tremors wracking him so hard he shivered around Lance, spasms of clench and release that drugged Keith with each luscious inch of his cock, solid and scorching inside him. 

Keith was was unanchored, swept along on furious tides of sensation, and he felt dizzy, weightless, like he’d never experience gravity or terra firma again.

Until he felt a warm hard slide over his shoulder, up his neck and into his hair again, a voice practically purring against his chest. Lance grounded him once more.

“Keith...I can feel that…feel you.” Those spellbinding hands ran over him, pierced though him, sparked like plasma arcs down his arms, over his back, trailing over his thighs as they quivered as the Blade slowly resumed his rocking slowly, as though driven on autopilot, chasing another high. He never wanted to come back down, desired desperately stay forever in the rarified air of the Blue Paladin's passion.

“You good?” That voice, that soft, concerned voice carried on warm breath that puffed against his overheated skin, “Did you...do you want to…?” Lips landed on his chest and the Blade felt branded.

Keith nodded loosely, his chin brushing the top of Lance’s head, hands rising to curl over his shoulders as he gently urged him to lay down again. 

“Mmmhmmm.” The Blade felt a slow, satiated smile ease across his lips, easing the ache from where he’d bitten at them. “Prostate orgasms...told you it’s different.” He could do this again, he desperately wanted to again, before it was too much; it was already too much, but Keith couldn’t stop, he never wanted to. “I needed that...so so badly,” 

The Red Paladin leaned down, his forearms bracketing in Lance’s head in again, admiring the high flush on his face, the sheen to his ridiculously smooth skin, the alluring sliver of tongue peeking out to dash over his lips, and Keith licked his in sympathetic response. 

This boy. How he needed him. And he was still hard. Perfect.

“I can come a few times like this,” the Blade shared with a meaningful swivel of his hips once more that wrenched a thin moan from both of them. 

Lance’s fingers looped once more behind his neck, thumbs weeping the angle of Keith’s jaw in a way so intimate it made the Blade blush in a way fucking Lance with abandon hadn’t. 

“That’s such a turn on and also moderately terrifying,” the Blue Paladin confessed with a chuckle, then flexed those razor sharp hips, and the Blade sucked in a breath. 

Keith desperately wanted to know what those hips could do when if handed over the reigns .

“Hey, sharpshooter,” murmured, leaning down until his was practically nose to nose with Lance, “Time to show me what you got. If you got any gas left in your tank.” He smirked and lifted his hips to gently bounce on the Blue Paladin’s cock once more, a dirty challenge thrown down.

He knew how Lance responded, had always responded, when the Blade taunted him, dared the Paladin to give it his best shot and try to show him up. 

He wasn’t disappointed.

Lance stared up at him for a few tics with a stunned expression before it quickly morphed into a smirk and a saucy wink.

“Roger that, samurai.” Tanned, talented fingers Keith longed to suck on quickly slithered down to his hips and suddenly the world tilted on its axis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my, samurai, what have you gotten yourself into?


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having a viewing party to watch season 6 tonight with fellow nerds, there's gonna be so much screaming, I just know it.
> 
> So if S6 killed you I hope this chapter of relentless smut brings you back to life.
> 
> And as you can see it's now been increased to 9 chapters, as I'm writing an epilogue because you all asked so nicely.
> 
> P.S. As always I miss a few typos no matter how often I proofread. I'll go back and fix them later!
> 
> PLEASE NO S6 SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS, not everyone reading this will have seen the new season yet!

Keith’s noise of surprise was quickly silenced when he found himself knocked flat on his back at the opposite end of the bed with his knees rucked over the crook of Lance’s arms.

The Blue Paladin loomed over him with a bright smile. “Have I said lately you’re pretty swell?”

The Red Paladin blew a lock of dark hair out of his eyes and huffed as he tried to regain his composure. “I could stand to hear it mo-OH GOD!” 

Said composure was utterly and completely shot when Lance thrust into him, hard and deep, like he was trying to make the Blade feel it in his throat.

Never let it be said that Lance McClain didn’t gave it his all when Keith Kogane threw a gauntlet down in front of him. Or spread his legs!

Lance had been seriously concerned he would come too soon and mess up the rhythm by needing a break, but today was a day for all sorts of firsts! Mostly because he’d never gotten to bang anyone more than once, and therefore was just now learning he had a heck of a lot more staying power than he expected thanks to Keith’s amazing blowjob earlier.

Also he was **highly** motivated to rock Mr.Too Cool Kogane’s world as hard as his had just been rocked. Sure, Keith had come, but he’d also been in the pilot’s seat; the Blue Paladin had now been given the proverbial stick and was more than ready to prove to the Blade Lance McClain was gonna be the love of his life.

 **Lay!**

Best lay of his life! Totally what he meant. Mostly.

Lance dragged Keith’s butt up off the bed to spread the Red Paladin lewdly over the sprawl of tan, lithe thighs. What a view. It was going to play forever on repeat behind the Blue Paladin’s eyelids every time he closed them for sleep from now on.

The Blade’s hands flew up over his head to scrunch into the sheets and they were dragged down the bed along with him when Lance hitched him another few inches with a sharp smile that showed a lot of teeth. Lance adored that he caught Keith off guard with the aggression because the look on the Blade’s face was wide open and shocked as the tanned teen drove into him again with a smirk that knocked a loud noise of the Blade. 

“FUCK! JESUS! LANCE!”

If he wasn’t so busy trying to jackhammer his former teammate through the space mattress, Lance might’ve made a quip about calling him Jesus or talking about another dude in bed. Thankfully, the Blue Paladin wasn’t that skilled a multi-tasker, so he spared them both the bad joke.

“Good?” he panted, staring down at the Blade’s face, soaking up how darn pretty Keith looked spread out under him, dark hair sliding over his sheets as he was quickly reduced to nonsensical noises that only once in a while resolved themselves into a curse or Lance’s name.

Keith nodded quickly then strong thighs braced in Lance’s arms flexed, pulling the Blue Paladin down closer. The Blade cast an arm over Lance’s shoulder and blunt nails dug in as if, even though the Blue Paladin was buried deep in him, he still wasn’t close enough. 

The Blue Paladin’s attention soon narrowed down to the burning tightness growing in his gut from the serious workout he was putting in, the heady draw of the Blade’s body, the sheen of sweat over the other teen’s skin, which he promptly leaned down to lick from his flesh.

Stupid, sexy, sweaty Keith, the Blue Paladin thought with an indescribable amount of affection.

That earned another approving noise from the Red Paladin, whose fingers darted into Lance’s hair to keep him there. All Lance could taste was the Blade under his tongue, the only sensations he comprehended were Keith’s delectably hard thighs pressed against his biceps, his body clenching around him slick and warm; the only sounds that registered were the Red Paladin’s increasingly breathy moans every time Lance slide home into him, hard and heated.

When he switched it up to grind into the Blade, almost frantic to stay in him as deep as possible and, hopefully, never have to leave except for absolutely necessary water breaks, Keith shouted, “There! Fucking there! Don’t stop!” He clutched at the Blue Paladin harder, as if daring him to try and move even a centimeter away.

Lance was pretty darn good at following orders, and this was was the easiest one he’d ever been given. His knees crowded up under the Blade as he jerked his hips and their bodies undulated in unison. Lance rasped out the Blade’s name like a swear, “Keith...quiznak...you feel incredible…”

“God, Lance,” the Red Paladin groaned in his ear before teeth nipped at it. “Like that…fuck me. Fuck me hard.”

Lance stuttered out something in Spanish at Keith’s dirty talking and bit hard on the inside of his own cheek to stop from getting too close to coming. Forget Zarkon! The Blade demanding, begging like that would be the death of him. “I got ya, buddy.”

“Oh shit...don’t call me buddy when you’re - AH!” Keith managed to complain, and that was all the urging Lance needed to double down. If Keith was coherent enough to snark Lance needed to step up his game. He dropped one of the pale teen’s legs and hauled the other over his shoulder, twisting the Blade onto his side so Lance could kneel over one thigh and spear into him again.

From this angle the Blue Paladin was able to slide in deeper and get a beautiful view of it at the same time. His gaze dragged down the Blade’s flushed body, entranced by just what a pretty mess Keith was under him with his eyes half lidded as his fingers kept twisting in his sheets.

“God...your cock…” the Blade groaned at another particular satisfying jolt of the Blue Paladin’s hips. “C’mon...right...right there!” He braced a hand into the mattress and pushed back as best he could to meet Lance’s rough movements.

Sweat dripped into the Blue Paladin’s eyes as he looked down to where he could see Keith stretched around him, the oh so dirty picture of him sliding in with sharp, short hitches, the beautiful contrast of their skin, pale, tan.

Blue.

Red.

Push and pull.

Water and fire.

It was so hot Lance wouldn’t have been surprised if steam rose from their sweat drenched bodies, and he revelled in how light-headed he felt, untethered, like if Keith didn’t keep grabbing at him he’d drift off into the space between stars. 

No one had a right to be this stupidly, effortlessly sexy, the Blue Paladin thought hazily as he turned his face to mouth at the Blade’s leg over his shoulder. How dare Keith.

When the Red Paladin bucked against him with a hoarse groan, shuddering hard, Lance felt the tell-tale contractions, the Blade’s entrance clenching and releasing, fluttering, around Lance’s hardness, gripping him tight.The Blue Paladin was pretty sure he saw supernovas and not from the viewport in his room.

He slammed in deep a few more times as Keith shouted into the wad of sheets he shoved to his mouth, before sagging over the Red Paladin, hands distractedly running over his skin. “Holy crow...Keith...what the quiznack...again!?” He stared down at the Blade’s still unflagging erection, torn between impressed and seriously concerned his former teammate was, in fact, going to sex him into a coma.

The Blade didn’t say anything, heck, he hardly even seemed to hear Lance for a minute, breathing as hard as if he’d just exited a level 8 training session. Keith flung one arm flung over his face as small noises of almost painfully pleasurable stimulation snuck past his lips even as the Red Paladin slowly squirmed, tipping his pelvis down a few inches then back up, unconsciously rocking down on Lance’s cock by inches.

“Fuck...t-told you...s’different...sh-shut up.” Keith muttered even as his hand then cast out blindly to land on the Blue Paladin’s chest. 

“Hey, it’s not my fault my junk’s magic or something,” Lance wheezed, his own hand covering Keith’s and guiding it down his chest, his stomach, down to where they were joined. The Blade made a delicious, satisfied hum as pale fingers spread to touch where they were joined as Lance’s thrust again, this time a lot gentler as he chewed the inside of his cheek to refocus, the little flutters of aftershocks of Keith’s crazy orgasm still causing little frissions of clench then release around him.

“It kinda is,” Keith admitted breathlessly, his face still turned into the sheets, as his fingers curled spasmodically in them. “Fuck...c’mon...one more...I-I got one more in me…mmmm.” The Blade was literally wallowing in pleasure, rucking up Lance’s sheets and surely wrecking the Blue Paladin for anyone else after tonight.

“Wow. Is this a Galra thing or are you just a sexy superfreak?” Lance queried as he slowly lowered Keith’s leg. 

That made the Red Paladin open one eye, and he probably would have shot Lance a grumpy look if he wasn’t riding so high on endorphins from Lance’s apparently epic sexing. “One more...and I’ll do it to you later.”

“Pssh, like that wasn’t already the plan. But seriously, I really wanna get off with you,” Lance mumbled as he pulled out and pushed at Keith’s hips to roll him onto his stomach. Lance fished the lube from the sheets and slicked another generous coat over himself before draping over Keith’s back. The Blue Paladin rocked his hips, easily sliding between Keith’s cheeks to nudge the tip back into him. 

Oh, that was heavenly.

“If I beg will you let me come in you?” Seriously, he would beg. Really pathetically.

Keith turned his head to peek at Lance over his shoulder and chew at his lip. “Y-yeah...yeah, I want that.”

Lance smiled at the Blade and craned his neck to plant sloppy lips on his cheek before rearing back. “Awesome. Now get that cute butt up for me.” 

He playfully whapped Keith on the ass, and his eyes immediately widened when that got a brand new, throaty noise from the Blade that he’d not heard before. One of Lance’s eyebrows shot up so high it was danger of disappearing into his hairline.

“I am **SO** going to remember that for later,” he chuckled as Keith muttered something under his breath then crossed his hands under his chin and popped his tush up a few inches. Lance tsked with a smile. 

“Oh, I gotta do all the work, huh? Dang, you’re lazy,” he teased. Lance didn’t mind, in fact, he took the opportunity to grab Keith’s hips and yank them up for a little more manhandling; that was fun.

Another not at all unhappy noise leaked from the Red Paladin as Lance eased smooth palms up his sweaty back to curl over his shoulders. The sinful way the Blade looked bent over, entirely unselfconscious, in front of Lance had the Blue Paladin humming as he leisurely rubbed himself over the Blade’s entrance, teasing him a few tics.

“Lucky for you I got energy to spare.” Sure, the Blue Paladin was a little beat, after all it had been a really long day, he’d nearly died, like, three times, and who knew how late it was, but Lance McClain had untapped reserves of sexual frustration he’d stockpiled since flying Blue into space, and he was prepared to burn through them all to keep banging Keith all night. 

Or until someone showed up with a crowbar to pry them apart. Thank goodness he double checked the security lock on his door before they got started.

“Fuuuuuuck,” Keith moaned as Lance sank back into him with one long, intoxicating slide that had the Red Paladin visibly shuddering under him. The Blue Paladin savored the sight of sinking into him inch by inch in one long, smooth glide, then sighed when he bottomed out. Keith’s butt was definitely one of the great wonders of the cosmos, he swore to himself. 

“Yeah...exactly,” Lance agreed as he steeled himself for a few moments, eyes closed as he concentrated on how amazing the new position felt, how smoothly muscled Keith’s back was under his fingers as they slipped from his shoulders, down his bowed spine. 

The Red Paladin’s breath hitched and, before Lance could thrust again, Keith rocked forward then back, fucking himself like Lance was taking too long so he was going to handle business.

Figures Keith would be a power bottom, Lance thought with deep seated appreciation as he admired the way the Red Paladin had zero compunction about bouncing back again, faster this time, like he was using the Blue Paladin as his personal toy. 

But that wasn’t gonna do, not for Lance; he wanted to make darn sure Keith would remember exactly who made him sit funny for at least the next dozen quintents. That every time he stripped out of that Marmora suit he’d see the roadmap of the Blue Paladin’s touch all over his skin. So Lance darted a hand out up to wind in that dark, sweaty hair and pulled **hard** , canting Keith’s neck back so far he had no choice but to push up to his hands or lose half his mullet.

“Ahhhh Christ!”

“Nope, just me,” Lance chuckled with an edge to it. He folded his other hand back over Keith’s shoulder and, with a firm grip on the Blade, he took over the tempo as his hips smacked forward at the same time he hauled Keith’s delectable butt down to meet the thrust. 

That knocked a whole new decibel level out of the Blade. **_Dios mio_** , people thought Lance was the loud one. Keith put him to shame, and Lance would have been tempted to give him guff about it later, if it wasn’t for the fact that he was super proud of himself and also was going to do whatever was in his power to ensure this wasn’t a one-off and he satisfied the Blade so well Keith would toss his pride out the airlock and come crawling back for seconds, thirds, infinity rounds.

“That’s it,” Lance commended breathlessly, using those core muscles Shiro practically beat into him with relentless training to quickly work up to a pulse-pounding rhythm that had the Red Paladin jolting back and forth between Lance’s hard hand in his hair and his harder cock. 

Keith was a gorgeous moaning mess, sweaty and loose limbed under the Blue Paladin’s firm grIp. Every hard thrust had the Blade shouting like the only way he could get out everything he was feeling was to punch it out with florid swears on nearly every exhale.

“Gosh, you’ve got a dirty mouth,” Lance marvelled as he pulled again on Keith’s hair and this time hauled him upright, the Blade’s back colliding with the Blue Paladin’s chest. Lance’s hips never slowed as he fucked up into him. 

Yeah, this was much better because the more skin contact he had the happier Lance was; the hand not fisted in the Keith’s hair snaked along his side, over his stomach and up his chest to feather over a nipple before pinching it.

“Fuck yeah, don’t stop!” the Red Paladin demanded with an utterly wrecked voice and it came out raspy. Lance quieted him down by popping two fingers in his mouth.

“Suck?” He probably could’ve said that with a bit more conviction, but he didn’t want to be rude or gag him when Keith was being so super awesome and letting Lance grind up into him. 

Honestly, Lance was totally going to make him the best food goo ever for breakfast. Maybe sneak some of Hunk’s not-that-secret real food stash, that’s how generous the Blue Paladin was feeling towards Keith at the moment. 

Especially, when Keith took the suggestion with such gusto. His fingers clamped on Lance’s wrist to keep his hand there as the Red Paladin sucked his fingers with relish. Lance knew first hand just how talented Keith’s tongue was, and the sinful wet slide of it along his fingertips had the Blue Paladin shuddering, goosebumps breaking out over his skin. 

Things were getting pretty desperate for Lance, the hot coil in his gut winding tighter with every thrust, but he really **REALLY** wanted to follow through on his promise to get Keith off one more time, and not just because the Blade promised to get him back later.

Like earlier, Lance wasn’t too proud to beg. Or say whatever dirty, wrong, hot thing that crossed his increasingly frantic mind.

“C’mon Keith...Keith...you feel so good...gonna make you scream…” Lance’s voice dripped into the Blade’s ear, his voice tumbling to an intense, lower register, and the Red Paladin responded with a vicious rock back onto him, the motion hard and jerky, all finesse and rhythm lost.

“Dying to suck you later...been imagining you in my mouth…” The Blade made a desperate noise around Lance’s fingers, tongue sliding, teeth coming into play to scrape. 

It sounded like a yes, like a heck yes, please, and thank you.

“Wanna feel you...oh quiznack...in my throat...” He licked up the side of the Blade’s neck before biting down hard..

The Blade jolted against him; Lance’s thrusts were coming quick and shallow now, both teens gasping as each sharp snap of the Blue Paladin’s hips rattled them both. Lance tugged on the Blade’s hair again, jerking his flushed face around to where Lance could see it and the sight snatched the rest of the tanned teen’s breath from his lungs.

Keith was totally gone. Utterly and completely

Even though his eyes were open he didn’t seem to see Lance, despite how close as they were. Spit slicked lips slid over his fingers, wanton and messy, the sweetest, almost pained noises leaking around them. Lance pulled his fingers reluctantly from the Blade’s mouth and curled them under his chin to keep his face turned to him. He didn’t want to look anywhere else.

“C’mon Keith...lemme make you feel amazing.” Lance whispered, his face lowering, mouth hovering over the Blade’s. 

Bright blue drowned in hazy violet before the Blade’s fingers rested over the arm around his chest and his head lolled loosely, held up only by the Paladin’s touch under his chin, and his voice shook with his reply.

“Yeah...p-please.”

The Blue Paladin sighed and his face dropped, lips sealing over the Blade’s neck, tongue working hard against his pulse point as he rocked up into him again, hard, sharp. It knocked a thin noise out of both of them when Keith rolled his hips back in a tight swivel to keep Lance deep in him, hitching in time with their shattered breathing.

The Blue Paladin’s fingers stroked wet and messy down Keith’s neck, his chest, over his stomach before sliding down to slick over his hard, dripping cock. It felt even better in his hand than he’d imagined, thick, heavy, and so hard Lance swore he could feel the Blade’s jackhammer heartbeat in the throb of it. 

“AH...FUCK! LANCE!” the Red Paladin shouted. 

“Shh shh shh,” he soothed nonsensically, but he didn’t mean it. He loved every single noise spilling from Keith’s lips. 

Long, tan fingers slipped around Keith’s cock and the next thrust rocked the Blade forward, fucking into the circle of Lance’s grip. It didn’t take long after that, the ages of foreplay and relentless stimulating touches had worked the Red Paladin to an oversensitive, fevered mess and with just a few short glides of tanned, strong fingers over his length he was done.

Lance stared over his shoulder and down the length of the Blade’s flushed, tensed body to watch him fall apart, the way Keith struggled between sucking ragged breaths and shuddering out bitten off gasps as he came in long spurts over the Blue Paladin’s fingers, across the sheets, making a delightfully, unexpectedly large mess.

Keith’s dark head lolled onto Lance’s shoulder as he shuddered through his orgasm, hot, raspy moans panted right into the Blue Paladin’s ear that Lance would replay in his mind until the last star went supernova.

“Quiznak,” the Blue Paladin choked out as the Blade quaked against him, around him and, yeah, he’d been a total Boy Scout and as attentive as he could possibly be, but Lance was officially at the end of his rope. 

Even as Keith went loose against him, sated and wilting, Lance held him close to his chest as his hips jerked double-time, the deliciously profane smack of sweaty flesh a counterpoint to the thin moans punched out of the Blade as the Blue Paladin chased his own release.

Pale fingers fumbled to weakly tangle in soft brown hair and hard bitten lips skirted Lance’s temple. “C’mon...oh god...Lance...do it…wanna feel you come in me.” 

The Blue Paladin barely heard him over the sudden roar of his own heartbeat in his ears. It seemed to trip then stumble when he rocked into the Blade one last time and stayed there. It felt like Lance’s every muscle locked in rigor when he peaked and for several long seconds the Blue Paladin completely forgot how to breathe. His vision spotted over, dizzying him, as the tightly wound coil in him finally FINALLY snapped.

The low jumbled moan of Spanish that dripped into the Blade’s ear as the Blue Paladin pulsed inside him. Keith shiver deliciously, and his fingers slid loosely from Lance’s hair as everything unspun.

Finally everything in the Blue Paladin went lax, his lips against the Blade’s neck, the hands holding them together, the legs that kept them upright. Everything spiralled down from fierce and biting to gentle as Lance sagged to the side and dragged the Keith with him. They tumbled gracelessly onto the wrecked sheets.

Good gracious, Lance was definitely dehydrated after that gusher. And kinda dizzy. Maybe a little in love.

 

*******************************************************************************************************

The Blade blinked up at Lance when he suddenly found himself on his back. A year ago anyone who bet on the Blue Paladin taking Keith by surprise when it came to grappling would have lost a lot of GAC, but that was a long time ago. And Keith was currently very distracted by that bright sharp grin directed at him, along with the pleasant feel of Lance still being very hard and very much still deep in him; the jostling change in position made him squirm in anticipation

So the Blade didn’t feel too bad about being caught off guard, especially when Lance beamed down at him with a sunny, somewhat innocent smile that was entirely out of place with Keith’s legs rucked up over dark hips that had zero tanlines.

“Have I said lately I think you’re really swell?”

Keith didn’t think it was possible to burn even hotter than before, especially when he was still a little shaken by his orgasm, but clearly Lance being unexpectedly, disarmingly sweet had that effect. It reminded the Red Paladin this boy was dangerous to him, and in ways he already knew he was helpless to defend against.

“I could stand to hear it m-MMM! GOD!” he shouted when Lance rudely interrupted him with a hard thrust the Blade wasn’t expecting but certainly didn’t object to. 

Jesus, he’d suspected Lance had some killer moves, hell he’d dreamed about it more than once, but he hadn’t anticipated the Blue Paladin to flip the switch with such swiftness.

The Blade wasn’t ashamed to admit, it REALLY did it for him when Lance manhandled him roughly over strong thighs, yanking Keith’s ass right off the bed as the Paladin tucked his knees in close and delivered another powerhouse thrust.

“JESUS! LANCE!” The Blade’s hands sailed over his head towards the wall at the other end of the bed to brace himself against the deliciously hard motion. But the Blue Paladin wasn’t having any of that and practically branded his hands to Keith’s hips as he hauled him down another few inches. The Blade moaned throatily as his hands skittered down the wall to land in the sheets where he fisted them, and they were dragged down with him.

“Good?” 

Keith couldn’t believe Lance would even need to ask, given the sharp cry the Blade gave as the Blue Paladin casually tossed his legs over biceps he’d been eyeing for months and nearly bent him in half as Lance leaned in to dart that devilish tongue over pale skin.

“Uh huh,” Keith managed to huff as his fingers found the Paladin’s soft hair and curled into it, determined to keep Lance there, right there, there was so perfect he wanted to scream. His other hand finally found purchase in the Blue Paladin’s back and with the next vigorous pump he scratched down. He felt like all he could do was hang on for the ride, the Blue Paladin driving into him with an intensity the Blade wasn’t at all prepared for.

To be honest, he’d assumed Lance might’ve been a little less...experienced? Talented? Capable of fucking him so hard his vision was going a little spotty already? A guy that brash, with so many lame pick-up lines, was usually overcompensating at least a little, in Keith’s experience. But he was never happier to be proven wildly, blissfully wrong.

Especially when Lance flexed those workhorse hips again, stayed buried in him, and starting _grinding_.

Holy shit, Keith thought dazedly, he’d been entranced by their serpentine motion on the dancefloor but when this was introduced into the mix the effect was positively incendiary. The Blade felt a new rush of heat flame through him as the Blue Paladin’s thick cock ground directly against his prostate. 

“Oh fuck! There! D-don’t fucking stop! T-there!” he stuttered, his fingers digging in wherever they landed, into muscles, dragging down perspiration slick skin, fisting into sweat damp hair as he clutched at the Paladin.

“Quiznak, Keith, you feel so good,” the Blue Paladin crooned and Keith’s back arched, his head rolling over the sheets as he shook dark hair from his eyes and stared dazedly at the bulkhead over them. 

“Hard, oh god Lance, fuck me hard,” Keith demanded hoarsely as things went momentarily dark when his eyes rolled. The Blade felt as though the Blue Paladin was devouring him, consuming him, hollowing him out with every touch only to fill him up again with each thrust. A fluid trickle of Spanish seeped from Lance’s lips and steamed against Keith’s flesh. He turned his head and white teeth sunk into dark skin. Keith tasted him and thirsted for more.

The Blade’s lips stayed parted, allowing sighs and gasps of pleasure to rattle out of him. Breaths, bitten off, hitching with each relentless, electrifying grind struggled in and weren't nearly enough to keep the Blade entirely coherent. He relished the slide of the column of Lance’s neck against his mouth, the throb of his pulse under his lips, and he longed for Lance to pour into him in every way, fill every empty space and silent corner with blue, smother Keith with this heat then breathe life back into him. 

Keep him on this strung out along this razor’s edge of pleasure until he fell over into chasms, trenches, engulfed, drowned in azure depths. 

“I got ya buddy,” the Blue Paladin murmured and Keith wanted to scream. How could he sound so blase when the Blade felt like if he let go of the death grip on Lance’s shoulder he’d rip his own hair out for something to keep him grounded, tethered to rationality so he didn’t gasp out on the next breath how he truly felt for the tanned teen.

“Oh fuck,” he groaned, his voice cracking in a way that nearly betrayed him, “Don’t call me buddy…” Please, he nearly shouted. Buddy, pal, he didn’t want to be any of that, he wanted to be so much more, and he had to believe that Lance wanted that too. 

But they were in a time of war, of horror and miracles and close calls and new horizons, and all they had was tonight. Tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed, as much as the Blade wished it was.

So when Lance rolled him, twisted and contorted his body into a new position Keith went with it loosely, more than willing to take anything, everything the Blue Paladin would give him. A few more tics, vargas, however long they had, he’d take it all and keep it close, sink himself into every mind-bending sensation and decadent swirl of ecstasy until he choked on it. 

Until his voice nearly gave out repeating the Blue Paladin’s name like a prayer, gasping out wordless praise until he lost all sense of language and his only response to each jolt of pleasure was to push back, lean in, and grip tight, stay connected just that much longer.

When Keith came again it wasn’t like being shoved to a peak and over, more akin being dragged out by an undertow, creeping and pernicious. He thought he’d been keeping his head about him, above water, but when he cracked one eye he saw the Blue Paladin over him. Witnessed the lithe line of his frame, reared up on his knees and rolling his hips so sharp and smooth Keith felt cut open, flayed, every part of him lusciously exposed. 

Lance’s aquiline profile turned so his mouth was pressed to the Blade’s leg, fingers stroking up and down his calf, over his knee, his thigh, along his ribs. Bright eyes soon following, blazing over the Blade under him like laser fire, as if there weren’t enough points of contact between them. That fucking Keith hard and steady so he clutched desperately at the Blue Paladin wasn’t enough, and Lance wanted to learn his every texture and taste, watch him so intently as Keith splintered, fractured under him the tanned teen learned how to stitch him whole once more, how every piece of Keith jigsawed together to make the Red Paladin.

The torrent, the deluge of sensation the Blue Paladin poured over him, into him, filled his lungs and when Keith breathed out Lance’s name floated on the air. The Blade gave up swimming against the rip tide and let it carry him, plunge him to a new depth, and he shook from the intensity of it. He felt Lance arch against him, his lean body a sublime crescent moon against the dim light from the viewport, then slowed, entrenched in Keith’s body.

“Holy crow...again Keith?” the Blue Paladin murmured, and the note of appreciation in his voice had the Blade throwing an arm up, as though shielding his face a few tics would make him feel less deliciously exposed, like Lance could see his every thought, every nerve ending and reach out a finger to pluck them like taut bowstrings, make him quiver over and over.

He certainly felt like the Blue Paladin handled his body with as much finesse as an expert musician, drawing out tremulous moans Keith never heard himself make before.

“Shuddup,” he slurred, near drunk on the thick length inside him, the muddle of endorphins flooding his system. “S’diff-rent,” he croaked before he realized he’d shoved ruined sheet to his mouth when his body sang, stoppering anything worse than lurid groans of the Blue Paladin’s name from swimming to his surface. 

“Not my fault my dick’s magic or something,” Lance whispered as his fingers once again forged a path over Keith’s body to find his own hand and lead it to his chest. The Blade watched as their combined grip journeyed over dark skin.

Pale.

Tan.

Blue.

Red.

Fire. 

Water.

So different, but when pressed against him, Keith felt that missing puzzle piece slide into place. He felt his lips stretched in a sated smile as Lance’s fingers lead his down to touch where they were joined. It felt obscene, the way the Blue Paladin’s stretched him, and perfect they way he fit, the now slow, nearly gentle tilt of his pelvis as he rocked a few scant inches back...forth...back...forth...lulling Keith like waves over sand.

“It is,” the Blade exhaled as he felt Lance slide home again. “C’mon...more…” However in over his head he was, Keith wanted to sink under Lance’ comforting weight until he could no longer see the light of day from the depths of this intoxicating abyss. 

“Is this a Galra thing or are you just the sexiest superfreak?” the Blue Paladin joked thinly as he tried to catch his breath, although the humor didn’t show on his face under the look of wonder and interest as he eyed the still semi-coherent and wanting Red Paladin under him.

“One more…’n I’ll do it to you later,” Keith hoarsely bargained, then made a noise of complaint when Lance pulled out and rolled him onto his stomach.

“Like that wasn’t already the plan,” there came that voice, low and still enticing despite the new rasp in it, by Keith’s ear. He felt Lance’s slick cock glide between his cheeks, just the tip pressing in again and the Blade felt such relief. He didn’t want them parted yet, not yet, please not yet. 

“I want to get off _with_ you, Keith. If I beg you gonna let me come in you?” 

Jesus christ, where the hell did Lance learn to talk like that, with that low tenor in his voice that sent a brand new frisson of interest along Keith’s nerves? What happened to cheese and crackers? If he kept talking like that the Blade would be the one begging soon enough.

“Y-yeah,” he breathed around the tightness in his throat that strangled him minutely when he looked over his shoulder and saw Lance’s face so close to him. “I...I want that.” When the Blue Paladin leaned in, his lips landing firm and warm on his cheek before sliding away, the Blade mourned the near miss.

“Awesome. Now get that cute butt up for me,” Lance quipped as he reared back, regrettably out of Keith’s reach, before a dark hand flashed out and connected crisply with Keith’s ass, knocking a higher pitched moan from the Blade than he’d ever admit to in the light of day.

“Oh ho ho, I am sooooo remembering that for later,” Lance promised with a smirk in his voice as those talented, smooth hands turned firm once more and hauled Keith’s hips up, pale knees unsteady under him.

“Y’better,” the Blade slurred dreamily into the sheets. “Ohhhh fuck.”

“Exactly,” the Blue Paladin agreed behind him, his voice going tight once more as he slid into the Blade with such a long stroke Keith thought dazedly he might feel it in his throat.

The pale Paladin wasn’t thinking with any higher brain functions anymore; he’d been relentlessly, skillfully pared down to pure instinct. Base, animal desire prompted him to move, even as his thighs trembled to hold up his weight, his knees slid over jumbled sheets, his cheek pressed into a mattress damp with sweat and saliva sliding from his slack mouth. 

He felt filthy in the most decadent way and savored it as he rocked back until he felt those sharp, dark hips snap against his ass with a satisfying smack. The Blade swayed forward again, back arched at a deep angle to keep his shoulders, face smashed into the bed, abandoning all pretense he wasn’t completely wanton for the Blue Paladin and deliriously fragmenting under his touch, his cock, his mouth whenever it said Keith's name or traced over his skin.

He heard Lance groan, allowing Keith his way for a few tics and the Blade stroked over him again...again...always with the thought of Lance watching him, letting him, wanting him.

So intent was he in driving the Blue Paladin’s cock deep into him Keith didn’t note the absence of those stroking hand from his hips until one folded hard over the meat of his shoulder and squeezed. The other fisted into his hair and pulled. His scalp ached deliciously with the hard yank that hauled him up to his hands. 

Lance use his twin grip to still Keith’s tempo and set his own, slamming into him with a hard snap of that powerful pelvis. The roughness had Keith shouting as he liquified from the spike in scorching pleasure.

“Christ!”

“Nah, just me,” Lance’s voice husked again and that was the last rational exchange Keith could recall with the Blue Paladin, as his brain blanked out as he was absolutely, undeniably **ridden** and **fucked** hard by the tan teen. The Blade hardly knew if he preferred the softer, gentler touches that made him want to cover his face and stuff his mouth to keep from keening or if he coveted more the ardor of Lance’s control sliding away as he thrust into the Blade with power and the occasional praise gritted out between clenched teeth.

Keith’s own responses were whittled down to profanity laden chants interspersed with Lance’s name, which eventually resulted in the Blue Paladin noting, “Man, you got a dirty mouth,” then hauling the Blade upright by his hair as he slid two fingers past Keith’s slack lips. “Suck,” he commanded in his ear and Keith, without conscious thought, took the order with enthusiasm.

His head knocked back against Lance’s shoulder and he sagged against him, held up only by the arm around him, the strong chest pressed to his back, the thumb sliding along the jut of his jaw, the fingers pressing on his tongue as he messily laved over them, chasing the taste of the Blue Paladin, of himself where Lance’s fingers had journeyed over his skin, carving new paths, valley and chasms through him.

“C’mon,” the Blue Paladin urged, and Keith made a nearly wounded noise at the note in it, a tender counterpoint to the hard thrust that had his spine arcing with a spiral of bliss. “Wanna make you scream, Keith.”

The only reason the Blade hadn’t already done exactly that was the fingers in his mouth. His cheek hollowed as he drew them in deeper. 

“Been imagining you in my mouth...I want to suck you,” Lance muttered into the drenched hair at Keith’s nape, filling the Blade’s mind with the fantasy as perfectly as the Blue Paladin’s cock did his fevered body. 

“I want to feel you...ah quiznack,” Lance confided into the slope of Keith’s neck, “In my throat.” When he bit down the sting of pain jolted the Blade’s body and his fingers scrabbled to find purchase on the strong arm steeled around him, something to keep him up, steady, and not completely losing his mind because Lance, ridiculous, beautiful, brave Lance McClain was some sort of secret, devious sexual maestro and was wrecking Keith as effectively as he’d every decimated any Galra fleet.

“Lemme make you feel amazing,” the Blue Paladin practically purred when the fingers keeping Keith’s tongue from spilling his every tightly controlled thought and long held desire slipped out and curled under his chin, turning the Blade’s face to his. 

Was there something better than this, Keith’s dazed mind mused. How could there be anything more important, more mind-melting and body shattering than the way Lance was looking at him right now, the azure of his eyes deepened to cobalt as they stared down at him, into him, seeking out his every hidden depth and brightening it with this luminous touch.

If there was, Keith wanted it, he wanted everything the Blue Paladin would give him.

“ _Please_.”

Never had such a small word, whispered into the minute space where they shared breath, felt so heavy to Keith. He hoped the gravity of it brought Lance’s lips down on his.

The Blue Paladin’s fingers trickled down Keith’s chest, sliding through sweat and over straining muscle, the hollowed scoop of his stomach when he sucked in a gasp as that clever, deft touch wrapped around him. Keith’s head lolled loosely on his neck as he groaned for Lance, for the match he struck, touched to his wick, tossed onto a spilled trail of booster fuel, carelessly flicked into crate of TNT. The resulting shockwave mowed down the last of the Blade’s withering defenses.

Lance murmured nonsensically into Keith’s ear as he fucked into him again, rocking the Blade’s hips forward and into his tight, slick grip. Keith didn’t stand a chance, battered as he was, tossed on the increasingly turbulent seas of the Blue Paladin’s passion, and it was only a few short thrusts, or may it was a few light years the way it seemed his breathing, his heartbeat was stuttered, stumbled then suspended for one timeless tic. 

Everything he’d kept locked inside himself came tumbling out of him with a hoarse shout. Then another, a third as he came, and it seemed the Castle’s internal gravity shut off the way he felt weightless with each pulse then suddenly dropped back to the ground with each incremental tightening of Lance’s grip as he worked him steadily, expertly from root to tip, wringing Keith out until every last drop of pleasure seeped from him and he swayed back into him once more.

Lance held him up, he always did, Keith thought with a lethargic surge of affection as his shaky hand raised and tremulous fingers sought out the Blue Paladin’s soft strands.

“Lance…” Keith’s voice was reedy in a way he knew no one else would ever hear. “Oh god...wanna feel you come in me,” he beseeched into the thin skin at the Blue Paladin's temple, lips clumsily smearing over a smooth cheek. “Do it.”

The arms around his chest tightened as Lance nodded and his hips jerked again, rocking the the Blade. The Blue Paladin’s breathing was ragged, as clipped as when he fought he way through high level gladiators, mowed down Galra foot soldiers with his rifle, dragged a friend from danger, and Keith thought of sealing his mouth over his, licking into him, breathing into him, for him.

Completing this circuit of their bodies, a closed loop so Keith could forget for one night it wasn’t always like this, wouldn’t always be like this. A mobius strip of purple, push and pull and cling and cleave, and never have to wake up from this fevered fantasy finally come to life.

When Lance stilled in him and the Blade felt the heated wash of the the Blue Paladin’s passion, he went lax against that strong chest, confident as ever Lance would shore him up, even as his grip loosened in soft hair and fell away.

“Ah...mmm _**te necesito**_ ,” Lance purred into the delicately sensitive skin at the back of Keith’s neck before Blue Paladin tumbled them down to the now cooling sheets. “ _ **Es-estoy enamorado**_ ,” was whispered into the curve of a pale shoulder, the fall of dark hair, a faint scar along the back of one shoulder. 

Each sibilant suss of Spanish slivered a new mark into Keith deeper than any blade ever could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keef? You alive?


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens after.
> 
> Oh, I counted wrong, there's going to be 10 chapters with the epilogue, so you still got a teeny bit more to go!
> 
> I always find typos after I publish, I'll fix them later.
> 
> No update next weekend as I have a major convention to attend and a winged cosplay I'm frantically trying to finish in time.
> 
> P.S. I JUST MADE AN OFFER ON MY FIRST HOME AND IT WAS ACCEPTED, ADULTING BITCH RIGHT HERE!
> 
> Subscribe for feels and updates!

The two teens lay in a disjointed tangle of limbs for a long while, the only motion the rise and fall of their chests as their breathing eventually settled to something less hectic. Once in a while one of Lance’s fingers would idly move in a small circle against jut of the Red Paladin’s hip or dry lips would purse then stick briefly to skin tacky with drying sweat. Once the Blade huffed to blow a lock of damp hair out of his eyes. Otherwise it was quiet.

Lance was in that floaty stage where sleep threatened to drag him under; the only reason it didn’t was that his eyes were trained on the back of the dark head inches from his nose. 

If he closed them, would Keith still be there when he opened his eyes again? He didn’t know and wasn’t willing to chance it just yet.

“You awake?” 

Lance blinked at the croak that came from the Blade curved against him.

“Yeah.” Holy crow, his voice was equally destroyed.

“That was…”

What was Keith gonna say? It was unexpected? Crazy? A complete mistake? 

The lazy softness that had been crowding at the edges of the Blue Paladin’s consciousness disappeared immediately to be replaced by worry.

“Awesome,” Keith sighed. Then he shifted, subtly nestling back another inch into Lance’s chest.

If he wasn’t currently naked as the day he was born and busy spooning Lance would have done a flipping dance, or at least a vigorous fist pump

“Yeah?” He burrowed his face into the back of the Blade’s neck. Ok, maybe the mullet wasn’t that bad after all. Keith’s hair was super soft and perfect grabbing length. 

Was that his hand sliding over Lance’s? Wow, yeah it was 

He was holding hands with Keith. How the heck did that feel somehow more...personal than what they just did? Lance didn’t know what to think, except that he needed to hold on a little tighter. So he did, worming his hand under Keith’s and lacing their fingers together.

The Blade’s head turned minutely to look over his shoulder. “Uh, yeah, doofus. Did you not hear me?” The insult was delivered with a little quirk of the corner of his mouth, a smile threatening to break free once again.

“I think all of Olkarion heard you,” Lance chuckled then kissed the back of his neck again, again, again, then across one shoulder. 

“Smartass,” the Blade responded with a note of amusement before he turned to face forward again. “Jesus, your dick is nice,” Keith murmured softly.

Well, that was certainly said in an admiring tone of voice that had Lance internally preening.

“Can you not talk about Jesus and my dick in the same sentence?” he sassed.

“You called me dude right before you had your tongue up my ass,” the Blade retorted.

They both laughed, which felt kinda weird considering Lance had gone soft and was still inside him. “Ok, that feels...ummmm lemme…” He rolled his hips back and they both made a not-all-that happy noise when he slid out.

“Your bed’s a mess,” Keith said idly, like he was commenting on the weather and not the massive amount of spunk all over the sheets. 

Seriously, if Lance been giving Keith head he might have drowned trying to swallow.

“Not sorry,” Lance said with not a tiny amount of pride. “Holy crow, that was a rumbler. Do you always blow that hard?” Lance didn’t know if it was a Galra thing, a Keith thing, or a best sex ever thing. He hoped it was the last one.

Keith huffed and faced away from him once more, but the thumb rubbing idly along the side of Lance’s hand didn’t stop moving. “No...you...um...have impressive stamina.” 

“Aww, thanks,” the Blue Paladin replied, scooting to mold himself a little better to Keith’s back before he peeked over his shoulder to...well, get another gander at his stupid nice face. “Takes two to tango. I would be annoyed that you’re flipping awesome at everything, including sex, but clearly I reaped the benefits of that particular talent.” He waggled his eyebrows at the Blade who rolled his eyes back at him.

“Shut up,” Keith grumbled. Lance pursed his lips against the Blade’s cheek, then his temple before he flopped down behind him again. He heard Keith tack on, quietly, “The whole bed’s a wet spot.”

“Yuuuuuup,” Lance agreed, unwilling to do anything about it just yet.

“And...uh...I probably need to take a shower. Another one.” Keith muttered.

“In a minute,” the Blue Paladin replied, wiggling his other arm under the Blade to curl around his chest. “Just hang on. This is nice.” He stuck his nose in Keith’s stupid soft dark hair. Darn the guy for making a mullet totally work.

“...yeah, okay,” the Blade eventually agreed, then he sighed, a long inhale followed by a slow release of his breath, with a little sigh that sounded pretty relaxed, maybe happy even, to Lance. The curve of Keith’s spine softened against Lance’s chest. Gosh, they fit really well together.

Lance closed his eyes and was glad they weren’t facing each other because was he was sure he had the goofiest smile on his face. 

Oh wow, this was amazing, Keith Kogane was totally down with cuddling! Sure the banging was mind-blowing, and Lance was 100% confident they were sexual savants, because WOW, but spooning! With Keith! 

Hands down, best day ever.

“What’re you humming?”

Lance cracked an eye. “Hm?”

“You were humming.” The Blade’s voice was soft as his chest expanded subtly under the tan palm curled over it.

“Oh, uh,” The Blue Paladin hadn’t even noticed. “ _Despacito_.”

“Ass, you were not,” the Blade grumbled.

“I dunno, just some old Cubano song, I’ll stop.”

“No, I was just wondering. It’s fine...it’s...it’s actually kinda nice.” Keith shifted, fingers idly sifting between tan ones, thumb skimming over knuckles slowly.

Lance’s own grip contracted, squeezing just once. Yeah, this was nice, like super nice. The kind of don’t want it to ever **ever** end nice. 

Lance, however, was a realist as much as he was an optimist; he wouldn’t have survived this long in a space war if he hadn’t figured out how to balance both decently. It was nice, but it was also uncertain and probably on a time limit.

“Keith?”

“Yeah?”

“Is this weird? It didn’t feel weird. I mean it felt great, obviously, like WHOA. Clearly awesome.” Lance mouth started to get away from him. “But this-” He lifted their combined hands an inch from Keith’s hip then plopped them down again in a silent _oh hey we’re holding hands haha how about that_. “This doesn’t feel weird now. Does it?” 

There was a long pause, and something in Lance’s stomach dropped. Then Keith rolled over to face him; they wound up practically nose to nose.

“Lance,” Keith huffed, exasperation lacing his voice even as he smiled the tiniest bit. “We’ve spent the last year fighting an intergalactic war. Against an evil alien empire. In giant robot cats. That turn into an humongous space cop. This is the least weird thing to happen since we left Earth.” 

The expression on Keith’s face was unfamiliar to Lance, then he realized it was fond.

And that his own mouth dropped open when Keith yanked their hands up to brush his lips briefly over Lance’s fingers.

“Can I kiss you?!”

He didn’t mean to shout that practically in Keith’s face.

“Wh-what?” Keith jerked at the volume then blushed even redder than when he’d been spread out under the Blue Paladin and demanding to be fucked harder. “I mean...yes?” 

Oh **NOW** he wouldn’t make eye contact, like this was the most embarrassing thing Lance had asked to do to him today.

It probably was, considering the Blue Paladin should’ve been a gentleman and kissed the Blade before he, to quote Keith, “had his tongue up his ass.”

On second thought.

“Sweet! But I need to brush my teeth first.” Yeah, Lance hadn’t since yesterday and he was, suddenly, very aware of that fact. 

And that they’d both had something buggy on a stick for dinner. 

And their mouths had been on all sorts of body parts, which wasn’t really that bad since a shower had been in squeezed in there but...yeah, not all that fresh.

Lance darted in to peck Keith on the forehead as a concession then his cheek, chin, a shoulder, heck he threw in a little nipple smack too because it was right there, before he wriggled away from the Blade, rolled off the bed and nearly onto the floor. Thank goodness for training imbued reflexes because he caught himself before he went down in a graceless heap.

“Smooth as crunchy peanut butter,” the Blade drawled as he pushed up on an elbow to watch.

“Ay, be nicer to the guy who gave you three orgasms,” Lance pointed at him sternly then flicked up three fingers, “Or you won’t get any more.”

“You have the shittiest poker face,” Keith sassed even as his eyes raked appreciatively down Lance’s form, which reminded the Blue Paladin he was A) totally naked and B) very much bluffing because three was just halftime if he had anything to say about it.

“Ok, fair. But the next ones will only be spectacular and not absolutely mind-blowing,” he threatened with a grin as he backed towards the bathroom, unwilling to stop admiring at Keith. 

Naked. 

In. His. Bed. 

**Wow.**

Eventually Lance had to look away in order to do what he came into the bathroom to do, but not before she shot Keith finger guns. He was rewarded with a chuckle and eye roll.

A few doboshes later, after a quick wipe down with a wet washcloth, Lance was so intent on getting his kisser minty the slap to his butt caught him by surprise. The embarrassing noise he made was answered by a slightly evil chuckle. 

“Ow! I’m not the one who likes getting spanked!” he complained as he flung a hand out to try and swat Keith back for sneaking up on him while he was bent over the sink spitting.

Darn the guy’s inhuman reflexes, he easily shimmied right past Lance and into the shower, butt slap-free. “Shut up, I do not.”

Lance did a solid impression of the noise Keith made when he gave him that little smack earlier and got water flicked in his face for his effort. Lance was undaunted and leaned further around the shower partition to eyeball Naked Keith (copyright pending, exclusive owner Lance McClain with any luck).

“Aw, don’t be like that. It’s a healthy kink. I think.” He tapped his chin in mock thoughtfulness as the Blade ducked under the hot water.

“This from the guy who said cheese and crackers in the middle of fucking.”

“Not all of us are creatures of sin, Mr. Potty Mouth,” the Blue Paladin explained loftily.

“Dunno, what we did felt pretty sinful,” Keith smirked as he soaped up again.

“Excuse you, that was not a sin! Angels sang, it was beautiful and fricking hot. Pretty sure I heard a hallelujah in there at some point. ” Lance planted a hand on his hip, firm in his assessment of their sexy shenanigans. 

Then he grinned. Wide and like a real jerk.

“What?” Keith said warily, he knew that look. It was Lance looking way too pleased with himself.

“You got a little something on your...” He waggled a finger up and down in the Blade’s direction

Confused because he was sure he’d soaped away the majority of the jizz, Keith looked down.

Hickeys. 

Everywhere. Lance was pretty proud of his work, if he did say so himself.

Keith looked like he’d been attacked by a Rixion sucker fish. He even had one on his ankle of all places.

“Lance!”

The Blue Paladin held up his hands like it was a stick-up. “Don’t blame me! You’re really biteable!”

“I’ll show you biteable,” the Blade growled, stalking right out of the shower, dripping wet, determined and right at the Blue Paladin, whose eyes widened in concern.

Lance gulped and backpedalled frantically. “Wuh-oh!” He wasn’t nearly fast enough and was quickly pinned against the metal wall of the bathroom. The yelp that leapt past his lips at the cold surface was nothing compared to the next one when Keith started to savage Lance in the most terrifyingly erotic way possible.

Fifteen minutes later Keith was back in the shower, this time the one to hum happily, while the Blue Paladin was left flat on his back on the floor sporting a Rorschach of bite marks and hickeys across his chest and just as many littering his inner thighs and hips. Ocean deep eyes stared unseeing at the ceiling as the Red Paladin finished cleaning up just feet away.

“You alive in there?” Keith inquiried once he had a towel slung around his waist and a spare toothbrush in his mouth as he deliberately stood over Lance to drip on him.

“No,” Lance said shakily as he shot the Blade a dirty look. “Shiro’s going to have to explain to my mother that the Galra didn’t kill me, Keith Kogane’s mouth did. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“Not sorry,” the Red Paladin responded as leaned over the sink to spit and rinse, then held a hand out to haul the dazed and sarcastic Blue Paladin upright. He didn’t let go and used the grip to pull Lance closer.

“Thought you wanted to kiss me,” Keith reminded him.

“Oh, yeah, right,” Lance said dumbly, looking at at him. Then looking some more. 

“This deca-phoebe.”

“Shut up, I’m having a moment.” Gosh, Keith was hot. And looking all kinds of soft, touchable, and not all prickly and a galaxy away right now. Lance wanted to soak it in, burn it into his memory because he knew that’s all he’d have soon enough.

“What, and I’m not?”

“Are you?”

“...just fucking kiss me, stupid.”

“There is it.” Lance smiled sunnily, lifting fingers to brush under the Blade’s chin then smooth over his cheek to keep him right there. Lance leaned down, he LOVED that he had to lean down, Keith was such a shorty, and kissed him, a little dry, closed mouth, quite chaste. It wasn’t anything fancy or raunchy. A simple, lingering, absolutely G-rated kiss.

It was kinda perfect. 

When he pulled back he was delighted to see Keith was bright red again.

“You’re holding my face,” he muttered, violet eyes skirting away, unwilling to meet Lance’s gaze at the moment. 

He didn’t swat the Blue Paladin’s hand away.

“Sure am. It’s sort of a nice face.” 

Oh quiznak, Keith was blushing so hard, Lance wanted to do a little dance! Who knew Mr. Stab Aliens for Exercise was so easily tripped up by a sweet little gesture once in a while? 

Lance was 100% going to exploit this as much as humanly possible. So he kissed Keith again, still keeping it nearly virginal it was that soft, except for, y’know, both them being naked. His fingers sifted into the Blade’s dark hair slowly and stroked just behind his ear.

The tiny noise Keith made then would’ve had the Blue Paladin fist pumping in victory if he wasn’t so busy trying to coax another out of him. He kept it up until Keith seemed to catch up and calloused hands landed lightly on Lance’s hips before smoothing around his waist to lock at the small of his back. 

Lance could make out like this all night.

However, the Blue Paladin still had other excellent ideas he wanted to try out, since Keith was super swell and accommodating tonight and, hopefully, the blush meant he was okay with it.

“Hey, can I try something?” he mumbled between one kiss and the next.

“Mmmhmm,” Keith hummed, nodding as he chased the Blue Paladin’s lips, returning the kiss with one of his own just as light and so sweet Lance’s poor heart nearly gave up the ghost.

And that was how Lance’s finally got his wish to spend a ridiculous amount of time giving Keith Kogane a full rub down, after straightening the sheets and wafting nearly every remaining towel he had over the still wet spot that seemed to cover half the bed, touching each and every part of him as much as he wanted. 

Sure, it took a little coaxing, since the Blade complained at the start when he realized it wasn’t a quick prelude to more sex, and wasn’t that a wonderful confidence boost. After a few minutes of Lance’s fingers working at the knots along his shoulders Keith was fairly amenable to it. And by amenable he stopped fussing and simply turned his head to the side to watch Lance from the corner of his eye, a little smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. 

The Red Paladin wound up falling asleep in the middle of it, not that that stopped Lance. Nope, he just patted himself on the back for a job well done, and kept going. By the end of it his hands had cramped up a little, and he used up nearly all the fancy body lotion he spent way too many GAC on at the mall, but it was well worth it since he was pretty positive he knew every scar, faint freckle, dip, and valley of Keith’s body better than the Blade himself.

Lance eyeballed the time; it was so late it was heading towards early. Definitely more than late enough for the other Paladins to have returned to the Castle if they hadn’t decided to bunk on Olkarion. Lance was pretty beat, but he didn’t want to crash and wake up to find Keith had snuck out.

That would really suck.

So he shoved that onto the think about it later list, which had shortened remarkably since the blowjob only vargas ago. It felt like many quintents.

To address that niggling little worry Lance scooted down to lay next to the Blade, between him and the door, and dragged a cover up over them before slipping an arm over Keith’s waist. Hopefully, if Keith decided to bail Lance would at least wake up to see him off. He’d prefer that didn’t happen, but the Blue Paladin knew his luck had to run out considering he’d probably used up all of it that day.

Lance shifted slowly, careful not to wake Keith, until he was comfortable and settled in. It was nice, really nice, the feel of Keith’s solid frame against his. It turned out sticking his face in the back of the Red Paladin’s neck was the best possible place to catch some Z’s.

For once the Blue Paladin’s dreams weren’t disjointed images of his family’s faces, Earth torn apart for its quintessence, or the nightmarish sensation of being chased by Galra he could never see but knew were always there, dogging his heels. 

Lance slept as deeply as he could in a healing pod, his mind blissfully fuzzed out. Except for the occasional welcome image of dark hair, beautifully strange violent eyes, or calloused hands floating to the surface, Lance slept better than he had in a year.

Waking up was its own delight, given it came with a Red Paladin draped over him as the ambient light of the Castle slowly crept towards its internal approximation of daytime. Lance had rolled over to his back at some point in the night and Keith had followed, one leg thrown over his, spill of dark hair resting on Lance’s chest. Relieved he hadn’t woken up alone, the Blue Paladin yawned slowly before he looked down at his former teammate only to start when he realized Keith was wide awake and looking back up at him. Staring, actually.

“...morning?” His voice still sounded totally shot. 

The Blade nodded silently, his cheek sliding incrementally over the Blue Paladin’s chest. 

This sort of quiet was something Lance didn’t exactly know what to do with. “Um...are you hungry? I mean, all we have is goo so I-” He was cut off by Keith’s mouth on his.

Ok, so talking was not on the breakfast menu. Lance quickly realized working up a bigger appetite was, as Keith’s fingers spidered under the sheets and over his stomach. He would’ve made a crack about Keith being an early riser in more ways than one, but it was a little difficult with the guy intent on making Lance all warm and fuzzy with such a wake-up call. 

Lance made a quiet noise of pleasure at the warm velvet slide of Keith’s tongue easing past his lips.

This was certainly a more positive start to the day than he’d expected, so Lance was more than happy to go with the flow, and when Keith moved to lean over him Lance oh so happily wound his arms around the pale teen’s neck. 

Early morning Keith wasn’t all about the soft and sweet kisses like he’d been a few vargas ago, which was not a problem at all since Lance knew the Blade had a very talented tongue.

It was only natural after a few minutes of progressively hot and heavy making out, and Keith’s hand on his stomach creeping down a few inches to barely brush his slowly stirring cock before dipping away to smooth along his stomach, Lance was making hungry noises into the kiss. He wriggled to wrap a leg over the Red Paladin’s hip and tried to pull him over to lay on top of him fully.

“Uh-uh,” Keith made a negative noise without parting their lips.

Lance responded with some noise that was definitely a little whiny and blatantly rocked his hips.

Just a little friction, that would be such a nice way to completely wake up. He tried to grab the Blade’s hand and force it where he needed it, and again Keith made a noise of protest as his tongue dipped past the Blue Paladin’s lips again.

“C’mooooon,” Lance finally groaned as he wrenched his mouth away. “Don’t start stuff you aren’t gonna finish, Keith. Not cool.”

The Blade looked down at the Blue Paladin’s pouting expression. “When have I ever half-assed anything, huh?”

“...good point.” Quiznak, he could used to waking up to this face over his. Keith’s hair was a mess, but a nice looking one and Lance carded fingers through it a few times. Yup, still annoyingly soft, and he was positive Keith never even looked at conditioner in his life. 

“Then cool your jets.” Lance’s arms around his neck tightened unconsciously when it seemed Keith was going to pull away, but the Blade just shifted to cast his hand around the bed until he located the half empty bottle of lube. Lance’s eyebrow quirked in extreme interest. “Think I promised you a lesson.”

Lance’s smile was slow and curling. “Keep kissing me, and I promise to pay very close attention in class.”

************************************************************************************

Keith lay there in the dim half-light of the Blue Paladin’s quarters, eyes half-open and staring idly at nothing. He was content to stay like this indefinitely, in this wonderfully fuzzy state between awake and dozing, floating on an absolute flood of endorphins and affection for the warm, strong body pressed to his back.

He was only peripherally aware of Lance’ moving minutely behind him; as long as he didn’t move away the Blade was fine. He closed his eyes and replays of what had just occurred flashed behind his lids. 

Lance’s face over his, brow pinched when he was slamming into the Blade with a vigor that had left Keith breathless; the lines across his forehead smoothing out when he dragged Keith’s fingers down his chest; the sublime curve of his throat when he’d thrown his head back in ecstasy; the way his lips moved when they formed the Blade’s name, tongue pressing against white teeth before sweeping out to dash over Keith’s skin.

He’d remember all of it, every moment, every sound, every touch for deca-phoebs. Keith wanted it engraved into his mind as deeply as he’d felt his body had been marked by the Blue Paladin, the pleasant ache already settling in.

Gradually Keith’s mind stopped idly swirling from one memory to another of Lance over him, under him, touching him, and focused on how he was touching the Blade right now.

A large hand folded over his hip, idly smoothing slow circles there, down a few inches to his thigh, up again to mold over his waist, down again, a lazy, comforting touch. 

Lance’s lips moved once in a while against the back of Keith’s neck, placing small kisses there and the Blade shuddered the tiniest bit as he felt his mouth curve into a smile. 

“Y’awake?”

Holy shit, was that his voice? It sounded gravelly, wrecked and Keith was parched. He must’ve been shouting; he hadn’t realized it, hadn’t been fully aware of anything except how skillfully Lance took him apart.

“Yeah.”

Keith’s smile widened. Seems he wasn’t the only one a little wrecked, Lance sounded just as rough as him. He liked that idea, that the Blue Paladin was equally affected, despite how smoothly in control he’d seemed once he shoved the Blade onto his back and fucked him stupid.

“That was-” Keith sighed, a slow inhale that expanded his chest, pressing his back into the warm, sweaty body behind his. He felt their skin stick, and it should have been gross but it wasn’t. He loved it. “Mmmm awesome.”

“Yeah?” Keith felt Lance bury his face in the Blade’s hair and the rush of affection he felt for the tanned teen had him lifting his hand to slide over the Blue Paladin’s, their fingers slotting easily together. 

This felt really good. 

This felt **right**.

“Yeah, doofus,” Keith replied with a hint of amusement, “Didn’t you hear me?” If there was anyone besides Coran on the Castle they probably heard him. The Blade refused to feel guilty or embarrassed about that. 

Well, okay, he hoped Shiro wasn’t on board because that would just be awkward, hearing your pretty much adopted brother get it on. 

But everyone else could fuck off. So what if him and Lance fooled around, they were adults and, honestly, it was long overdue. Keith had zero plans to act like this didn’t happen or try to hide a damn thing.

“I think all of Olkarion heard you,” Lance huffed with amusement before he started planting a pleasant line of kisses down Keith’s neck, along his shoulder. The Blade didn’t protest; actually, he thought he could get used to this, feeling Lance’s mouth peppering over his skin for no other purpose than to do it, not to get him wound up, but simply to express his desire to keep touching Keith.

Of course, that was also dangerous. Getting used to this so quickly. Keith knew he couldn’t hope to have it for very long before duty called him away, pulled them apart.

But he wasn’t going to think about that right now. The Blade resolved to stay in this moment as much as possible. There’d be time for the quiznaking war soon enough.

There were so many things he wanted to say to Lance, but he wasn’t sure how to start, or if he should. If it was too soon to blurt out how long he’d wanted him, how he’d been so frustrated at their stupid rivalry, how they couldn’t seem to stop sniping at each other with ugly, hard edges to their voices. How much time he’d lost when those edges were smoothed because he was too afraid to take a chance and be rebuffed, risk exposing himself only to have it shoved in his face once more that he was unwanted. 

Instead he said, “Jesus, your dick is nice.”

Okay...not exactly the heartfelt confession he’d been fretting over.

But it was true. Lance McClain was undoubtably gifted with a big cock and knew how to use it. 

“Ha, can you not talk about my dick and Jesus in the same breath?” the Blue Paladin quipped between one feather light press of lips along Keith’s shoulder and the next.

The Blade couldn’t help the ironic laugh that escaped him. “You called me dude right before you had your tongue up my ass!”

That set them both laughing quietly, which had the unfortunate effect of making Lance slide out; Keith stifled a noise of protest as he did. It wasn’t like he could expect them to stay joined at the hip, as tempting at it was for the last few remaining vargas of this night.

The Blade no idea what time it was. He wasn’t sure he cared. Keith decided to pretend this little, intimate bubble he and the Blue Paladin currently occupied resided outside of time and Castles and Lions, and it was just them for now. That was all he wanted to think about until reality inevitable intruded.

“Your bed’s a mess,” he noted absently, grateful Lance hadn’t simply collapsed on top of him and forced him belly first into the mini lake of drying come on the sheets, which were halfway yanked off the bed and hanging off the edge of the mattress. 

Damn, Lance had kinda thrown him around a little. That was hot.

“Not sorry one bit,” the Blue Paladin said cheerfully into the sweaty nape of Keith’s neck, nose brushing through tangled black hair. Keith hadn’t heard him bitch once about his mullet, rather Lance seemed to like pulling his hair; the Blade didn’t mind at all. “Man, that was a rumbler. Do you always come that hard?”

Leave it to Lance to ask the awkward questions; although it didn’t really feel that awkward, not with how Lance’s fingers tightened around Keith’s where they rest on his side. “Not really,” the Blade confessed. “You...you’ve got...really impressive stamina.”

Holy shit, did he ever. Keith had never been able to come more than once with a guy, and that was always with a hand on his dick. The couple of dudes he’d screwed around with hadn’t been all that interested in taking their time working him up to the near frenzy Lance had, and definitely hadn’t shown nearly as much as interest as the Blue Paladin in getting Keith off repeatedly. 

Keith was 100% convinced with this one fuck he going to compare Lance McClain to every other lay from now on.

Of course, there wasn’t really anyone else he was interested in, would remotely consider letting touch him, except the Blue Paladin. He didn’t see that changing anytime soon. 

Keith Kogane was a fickle person, always had been, and the few people who got past his formidable defenses he clung to with ferocity.

A lot of things had slipped out of Keith’s grasp throughout his life.

He wasn’t going to let the Blue Paladin be one of them again.

“Thanks,” Lance responded with a definite note of pride in his voice. Whatever, he earned it. “I’d be annoyed you’re awesome at sex on top of everything else, but I reaped the benefits of it.” Lance’s face appeared over Keith’s shoulder and there was the smarmy smirk Keith had really missed.

“Shut up,” the Blade huffed, even if internally he was anything but annoyed as Lance’s pressed his lips to his cheek, then his temple, which Keith found intimate in a way that made something in his chest clench. “The whole bed’s a wet spot.” Congratulations to Lance, Keith wasn’t sure he’d ever come that much, and he’d really like to not get rolled into it when they eventually fell asleep.

Holy shit, he could fall asleep here. With Lance. With Lance’s arms around him just like this. What a fucking day.

“Yup,” the Blue Paladin responded blithely.

“...and I could use a shower. Another one,” Keith pointed out. He wasn’t exactly in a hurry to remove himself from Lance’s embrace, but sticky, cooling reality was happening and he’d prefer to sleep comfortable and not all gross, in case he could persuade Lance for round two. Or four? He’d lost track, did you count fucks or orgasms? Keith snickered to himself for the silly turns his mind was taking. He felt a little drunk. Lance had done that to him. He’d high five the guy if he wasn’t so busy holding his hand.

“In a minute, this is really nice,” the Blue Paladin said softly into the sweaty fall of Keith’s hair. His other hand worked its way under the Blade and curled over his chest, dark fingers fanned over his sternum.

Lance made a compelling argument. 

“Yeah...yeah, okay,” Keith agreed easily, closing his eyes again. If he got rolled into come so be it, this **WAS** really nice. The kind of nice he knew was dangerous, but he welcomed it anyway. Keith closed his eyes again and focused on the sensation of Lance breathing against his back; after a few doboshes he noted his own breaths synched with him. And Lance was humming.

“What’re you humming?

“Uh? Oh... _Despacito_ ,” the Blue Paladin mumbled. 

“Ass, no you weren’t,” Keith mumbled as his own fingers tightened around tan ones.

“Old Cubano song. I’ll stop.”

“No. You don’t have to. Was just wondering...it’s nice.” More than nice. It was soothing in a way Keith couldn’t quite touch on. He wouldn’t mind if Lance kept doing that until he fell asleep.

“...Keith?”

“Hm?”

“Is this weird? I didn’t feel weird, more like awesome...but this…?” Lance lifted their joined hands a few centimeters before lowering them again to Keith’s side. “This doesn’t feel weird...does it?”

The Blade was silent for a few tics. 

How the hell could Lance say something like that, let that painful note of insecurity leak into his voice? 

The guy saved whole damn planets in a robot space cat without breaking a sweat, and he was wondering if it was okay to hold Keith’s hand, to let them enjoy the stupid afterglow after he’d just made the Blade scream his name.

Whoever the hell did something to make Lance so fucking insecure over the things he should be most confident about...well, they better hope Keith never learned their name. 

What the actual **fuck**?!

Keith rolled over impatiently and looked at the Blue Paladin closely. He was beautiful and also sometimes a complete dumbass. “Lance. We’ve spent the last year fighting an intergalactic war against an evil alien empire in giant robot cats that turn into an humongous space cop. This is the **least** weird thing to happen since we left Earth.” 

The Blade took a chance and pressed his lips to the back of Lance’s hand. He was better with actions than words and he hoped that spoke the volumes he couldn’t figure out how to say.

“CAN I KISS YOU!?”

Keith recoiled from being shouted at from a few centimeters away. “Wh-what?” Ok, not the reaction he expected, but this was Lance McClain and his question was a little ridiculous considering Keith let Lance yank his hair and pound into him doggy style after he’d sucked the Paladin off in a closet.

He really wanted to shut Lance up with his mouth. But nicely. 

“I...uh...yeah?”

Keith was well aware that was not a smooth reply, but Lance hadn’t exactly been suave when he yelled the request in his face. He stared at Lance, waiting for him to lean in.

“Sweet! But I gotta brush my teeth first.” Before Keith could complain that he’d been waiting for Lance to stick his tongue down his throat all night the Blue Paladin floored him with a unfairly cute smattering of kisses down his face and chest, even one on his nipple that had him reaching to cover it because it kinda tickled, before Lance basically barrel rolled out of the bed, managing to gain his feet just before he face planted.

“Smooth like crunchy peanut butter,” Keith smirked and he propped up on one elbow. Hot damn, a completely naked Lance McClain was definitely something to appreciate. 

“Hey! Be nice to the dude who gave you multiple orgasms!” Lance quipped, flashing three fingers as he backed towards the bathroom, plainly ogling Keith right back.

“You have a shitty poker face,” the Blade reminded him, even as he stretched a little bit. If Lance wanted to stare, go right ahead, Keith knew his months with the Blades had packed on a little more muscle. He figured he looked alright enough since Lance seemed to be a big fan of his body. 

“Fiiiiine, the next ones will only be spectacular and not mind-blowing.” The Blue Paladin mimed the sound of an explosion and fanned his hands on either side of his face. The Blade couldn’t help but chuckle; he could settle for spectacular.

Especially when Lance shot him those stupid finger guns.

When Lance disappeared into the bathroom Keith flopped back on the bed with a happy sigh. After a few tics he kicked around to find Lance’s pillow, rucked up at the far end of the bed, squashed against the wall, and dragged it up to cram into his face and cover up the goofy grin he knew was appearing there. 

Holy shit, he did it. **THEY** did it. They did **_IT!_**

He might be a space ninja assassin paladin and half alien, but Keith was also just 19 years old, so he allowed himself to feel immaturely giddy for a few moments when Lance left the room.

“Oh my fucking quiznak,” Keith mumbled into the pillow as he shoved it over his face that much harder, so Lance didn’t hear the stupid noise he made, before whipping it across the room and rolling out of bed. 

Keith needed to brush his teeth too since he couldn’t remember the last time he actually did, and clean up a little because he could feel the unmistakable reminder he let Lance come in him now sneaking down his leg. 

He must be nuts about the guy to let him do that because it was a pain to deal with later. But, hey, Lance was clean and Keith hadn’t wanted anything between them. Were there even condoms in space? Chances were they were super weird and not anything the Blade wanted in his ass.

He paused a moment to admire Lance bent over the sink.

Jesus, that ass. Those legs. That Paladin.

The Blade reached out and slammed the flat of his palm against said ass, grinning at the sharp crack of his hand meeting firm, round, fuckable flesh, and the loud yelp Lance made as he snapped upright.

“Heeeeey!” He waved his toothbrush at the Blade, and Keith grinned as a trickle of minty foam dribbled from Lance’s mouth. “M’not the one who likes getting spanked!”

“I do not!” Keith retorted as he weaved out of range of the slap Lance tried to land on him in retribution. Ok, maybe he wouldn’t mind if Lance left a handprint or two on him, but that was something to be discussed later, or just let happen naturally since Lance seemed to pick up on it.

The Blue Paladin did an unfortunately dead-on impression of Keith’s moan. “It’s a healthy kink. No shame,” Lance teased.

“You said cheese and crackers in the middle of fucking,” Keith reminded him. As if Lance had room to give him shit about making funny noises.

“Not all of us are sinful creatures!”

The Blade sniggered at the haughty way Lance said that, all while standing there with toothpaste on his chin and naked as hell. “Dunno, that felt pretty sinful.” His ass definitely felt like he’d sinned quite a bit; it was going to pay him back the next couple of quintents, that was for sure.

“That was not a sin! Angels sang, it was beautiful and hot. Definitely heard hallelujah in there at some point.”

Said hallelujah might’ve come from the Blade, for all Keith knew. He had definitely seen stars. Again, congratulations Lance McClain, Keith thought a little giddily as he stepped under the water. 

God, he hadn’t felt this good, this light, and not just physically, in so damn long, if ever. Keith felt happy in a way that was totally new. 

“Hey Keith, you got a little something on your everything,” Lance chuckled, wagging a finger up and down the Blade’s naked form.

“What?” Keith looked down, confident he’d gotten most of the jizz off. 

“...........”

Holy shit, he looked like he’d been attacked by a vampire!

“LANCE!” And that was just the parts he could see! Who knew what his neck or back looked like! There was marking and there was painting the Blade up like “this ass is property of the Blue Paladin” was stamped on his forehead.

“Not my fault you’re so biteable.” Of course he didn’t sound one tiny bit repentant.

“I’ll show you biteable,” Keith grumbled with only a little menace and a lot of intent as he walked right out of the shower, dripping wet, and pushed Lance up against the wall. Time to stamp “property of Keith Kogane, do not touch” all over this pretty piece of Paladin.

For a guy with what had felt like world-record breaking stamina when fucking, turned out Lance’s recovery time wasn’t equally impressive. Despite the Blade’s best efforts, and Lance definitely squirming under him, at first making protesting noises that eventually turned into ones of pleasure, he couldn’t get it up again that quickly. Didn’t stop the Blade from trying.

Keith turned his head to suck matching dark bruise to Lance’s other thigh as the Blue Paladin made an amusingly whiny noise and weakly pushed at Keith's head until he finally ceased, satisfied Lance was just as marked up at him, if not moreso. It wasn’t until he got back in the shower he realized Lance, the dick, had managed to leave at least one particularly sore hickey on his ass and he’d neglected to pay him back for that. Oh well, there was always later.

Regardless, Keith was feeling damn good and hummed to himself as he cleaned up, keeping an eye on the Paladin still sprawled on the floor, staring up the ceiling without blinking a whole lot.

When he was finally clean enough to sleep without worrying about making another mess on the bed, Keith slung a towel around his waist and stood over Lance as he brushed his own teeth with a spare toothbrush he found in the wall compartment. “You alive in there?” He figured Lance was being a little dramatic, but he didn’t mind, after all he could look his fill at the pretty, utterly nude Paladin like this.

“No,” Lance responded thinly before he blinked twice then raised his head to give Keith a half-ass glare. “Shiro’s going to have to explain to my mother the Galra didn’t manage to kill me, your mouth did. For shame.”

“Not sorry,” Keith smirked as he stuck his hand out to haul Lance upright, feeling a little proud at how wobbly he looked. He hung onto his hand, not eager to let Lance move away just yet.

“Thought you wanted to kiss me,” he hinted. Well, more like flat out said since Keith didn’t really do hints.

“Oh...yeah, right.”

And yet there was still no tongue in his mouth, Keith through huffily.

“This deca-phoebe.”

“Hang on! I’m having a moment.”

Keith blinked. Ah, shit, Lance was looking at him with this soft expression that made the Blade want to squirm in a way that even having the Blue Paladin balls deep in him hadn’t done. 

They’d done this backwards, hadn’t they? He should’ve kissed Lance before now. Maybe not. 

Had he brushed his teeth enough? He didn’t still have come breath from sucking him off, did he? Was it weird to want Lance to kiss him so bad he’d willingly give up round four or whatever they were on if only the guy would just fucking lay one on him already?

“What? And I’m not?” he demanded brusquely, the rough tenor of his voice a poor attempt to mask the nervousness welling up inside.

“...are you?” Lance inquired quietly, his damn endearing face quirking into a little smile.

“Just shut up and kiss me, dumbass.” Keith rolled his eyes.

“Therrrrre it is,” the Blue Paladin purred as his hands skimmed up. Keith’s eyes widened as they slipped along either side of his jaw, cradling his face almost delicately. Keith felt Lance tip his face up the smallest bit. He’d never admit it out loud but Lance being a little taller than him kinda did it for the Blade. 

Keith remember just in time it was good etiquette to close his eyes so he didn’t go cross-eyed staring at Lance. 

Then the Blue Paladin kissed him and Keith…

Keith **REALLY** didn’t know what to do with something so fucking soft and sweet. He’d expected something firm, hot, and probing, to go right along with every other scorchingly aggressive position they’d managed tonight.

He wasn’t used to tender.

When Lance pulled back Keith’s eyes didn’t open for a few tics, a step behind. How the hell did Lance do this to him so easily?

He finally opened his eyes and found azure reflecting something back at him that was both thrilling and a little scary. 

“You’re holding my face,” he muttered as he broke the gaze, eyes darting away before he said something crazy.

“Sure am,” Lance replied quietly. “It’s sort of a nice face.”

Fuck, this was another thing Keith could also get used to really quickly. Especially when Lance’s lips slid leisurely along his again, not pushing for him to open his mouth, let the Paladin gain entrance. It was simply soft and slow, a pleasure in and of itself. A thumb skirted over the thin skin under his ear and the Blade didn’t recognize the quiet, vulnerable noise that sounded weakly in his throat.

Keith finally reconnected his mouth with the rest of his body, remembering he had one and the sum of him didn’t solely reside where Lance’s lips rested. His hands quickly eased around the Blue Paladin’s trim waist, thumbs finding a happy home in the dimples at the base of his spine. 

Maybe it was a good thing they hadn’t kissed before. Keith might’ve never gotten around to getting fucked if he’d had this first. He might’ve settled for just making out with Lance all night, he liked it that much.

There was something seriously wrong with him. Or maybe it was finally right. His head had been completely turned around by the Blue Paladin, and Keith hoped he'd never fully re-oriented himself.

“Hey,” Lance’s voice eased in, gentle, enticing, “Can I try something?”

“Mmmhmm,” Keith hummed in response as he leaned in to close the minute gap between them once more; he’d agree to anything if only this didn’t stop.

The last thing he’d expected was to be lead back to the bed after Lance sorted it out and laid down clean towels, then pushed Keith onto his stomach and given him a massage of all things. No one wanted to do stuff like this with him, he didn’t understand why Lance wanted to now, at least not when sex wasn’t on the table for the moment.

Keith knew there was something screwed up in his head that he was more comfortable riding Lance’s dick than being touched like this, at least at first. He found it difficult to simply lay there, wondering what the hell Lance got out of it, and he flinched at the first light touch to his back. 

Soft hands paused at that, then Lance started humming again. Keith was only so strong, and after a few doboshes he appreciated Blue Paladin’s nickname sharpshooter as he zeroed in on his tight spots with pinpoint accuracy, stroking over the Blade’s back with initially gentle touches before the pressure increased, and Keith sighed happily into Lance’s pillow. 

He hadn’t know how wrecked his muscles were, or how exhausted he was, until Lance’s smooth palms gradually lulled him into a relaxed, drowsy state. “Y’don’t have to keep doin’ tha-,” he yawned.

“Shhh, I like it,” the Blue Paladin murmured as fingertips glided over a raised scar on Keith's left shoulder. Once more Lance traced over the puckered flesh, then along the smooth skin on either side of it. A third time. Keith blinked sleepily when he felt lips follow. 

The last thought he had before he blanked out was that it was really going to suck when he left.

The first thing he thought when he woke up was that Lance was a fucking furnace. Space was so damn cold, and the Marmoran bases and ships were frigid on a good day, and Galra ran hot. Leave it to Keith’s rotten luck to not get the one attribute he would have appreciated. Well, he wouldn’t have minded being taller.

But right now he was so so fine with his height, given he fit pretty much perfectly against Lance, their legs tangled and his head resting on the Blue Paladin’s chest where he could hear his heartbeat, feel the subtle rise and fall of slow breathing under his cheek. 

Fuck, he’d miss this. Just thinking about it made something unpleasant seize inside him. Keith shoved it down, stamped it brutally, before he slithered an arm around Lance’s waist and laid there. 

One night and he was turning into a complete fucking sap. Keith was great at keeping things like this inside and not dumping all his issues and wants and insecurities all over people in a flood of neediness. Of course, a lifetime spent bottling everything up eventually resulted in the dam breaking and all sorts of shit poured over the walls he’d spent years erecting.

Right now he was sort of drowning in...feelings.

Nice ones, but still, it was a lot to deal with. He’d figure out how later. Not right now. Right now things were kinda perfect.

Lance slept on and Keith tipped his face up to look at him. Really look at him. 

This loud, brash guy, a mouthy cargo pilot who knocked on a particle barrier surrounding a giant robot cat and upended Keith’s mostly shitty life in the most amazing way. He was...cool. And kind. And hot. Fucked like a porn star. Then laid soft kisses on Keith like the Blade was someone to be treated with gentleness.

Yeah, Keith was definitely screwed and would be miserable when he left. But he’d come back. Now he had a better reason than ever to do so. It was more than Shiro, more than wanting to come back to the only guy who’d ever been family to him by choice rather than circumstance, it was this whole new family he’d been shoved into in a blaze of blue metal and magic.

He had something, someone, so many people to really fight for now. And not just for the whole noble, universe saving deal, which was really important. He had a real family now, human and alien, and he had Lance.

When the Blue Paladin slowly shifted under him, Keith watched, observing his gradual slide from sleep to wakefulness, and he wondered what Lance would do when he woke up. When the Blue Paladin had slept on it, a new quintent had started, and Keith was still right there, naked and laying on top of him, proof last night hadn’t been some crazy fever dream.

Brown fingers found purchase on Keith’s shoulder then slid to tangle in his messy hair. Keith sighed in relief as he watched Lance’s mouth curl up in a tiny smile before he opened his eyes and looked down.

“Mmmmmorning,” the Blue Paladin hummed as fingers slowly stroked between Keith’s shoulder blades. “Are you hungry? All we have is goo but I ca-” Keith shut up Lance in the nicest way he knew.

The Blade honestly hadn’t meant to give him more than the same sort of light, soft kiss Lance had devastated him with last night, but the Blue Paladin had to go and make the happiest sounding noise in the galaxy they were currently floating in. Keith pressed the advantage and stroked his tongue past those beguiling lips, eager to taste him.

Soon enough they were clutching at each other and Keith’s hand was teasing Lance to the point he made hilariously frustrated noises into their progressively deeper kisses and rocked his hips up each time Keith’s fingers came close to wrapping around his cock but then skirted away. He repeated the gesture a few more times until Lance hooked a lovely, long leg over his hips and tried to roll Keith.

“Nuh uh,” he grunted as he planted a hand hard on the bed and kept his position. 

Lance wrenched his head away with a groan. “C’mon, man, don’t start stuff if you aren’t going to finish. It’s not cool.” He actually had the gall to poke his lower lip out the tiniest bit, and Keith leaned in to suck at it, pull it between his teeth and nip.

“When have I ever half-assed anything?” he pointed out when he came up for air and to admire the view of Lance under him, looking unfairly handsome for someone with bedhead and morning breath.

“Good point.”

“So cool your jets, sharpshooter,” Keith murmured as his hand went fishing through the sheets until he found his prize. He waggled the bottle of lube in front of Lance’s nose. “I promised you a lesson, after all.”

The Blue Paladin’s eyed widened a moment before he inelegantly unwound his legs from Keith’s and spread them enthusiastically instead. God fucking bless horny Lance McClain, Keith thought with deep seated appreciation.

“Don’t stop kissing me, and I swear I’ll pay close attention in class,” the beautiful boy under him promised.

Fifteen doboshes later Lance had given up on kissing Keith and instead practically put the Blade in a chokehold as the arm around his neck suddenly tightened as he yelped, back bowing in a sharp arch when Keith’s fingers finally hit the sweet spot dead on.

“Winner winner,” Keith murmured as he ducked out of Lance’s grasp to pin that clutching hand down to the mattress, his other working in slow flexes between the Blue Paladin’s gorgeous legs. Lance’s other hand fisted in his short hair.

“Y-yeah…” the Blue Paladin gasped, his eyes squeezed shut, “About darn t-tiIIIMME!” Keith almost laughed at the way Lance’s voice shot up an octave when his index and middle fingers pressed up again.

“Good?” Keith muttered as he hovered over Lance’s face, soaking up every little expression that darted across it, each dash of his tongue over his lips, the little jump of a muscle in his cheek, the beads of perspiration that had begun to dot his forehead.

“Uh huh uh,” the Blue Paladin responded nonsensically and Keith leaned into to slip his tongue past Lance’s parted lips again. His hand flexed once more and the tanned teen under him moaned, low and wanton, into Keith’s mouth and shuddered hard. 

While the Blade usually didn’t have a great deal of patience, Keith was more than happy to dedicate as much time as necessary to make the Blue Paladin lose his mind the way the Blade had the night before.

Lance’s fingers squeezed his progressively harder until Keith felt his bones creak. He didn’t let go, didn't let up, savoring the way Lance began to writhe against him, how his breathing stuttered, started coming in breathy little pants that sounded to the Blade like the universe’s prettiest panic attack. How his cock, which had gone soft for a while as Keith navigated the still new and unfamiliar terrain of Lance’s body, had filled once more and lay hard and slowly leaking against the Paladin’s tan stomach.

“You like it when I do this?” he asked quietly against Lance’s lips as he rubbed in small, firm circles, and the Blue Paladin nodded one, twice, the motion tense as his teeth came together with a _clack!_ “Or better like this?” Keith drummed his fingers in quick, sharp taps against his prostate and Lance’s thighs slammed together, trapping Keith’s hand, as a sharp cry leapt past the Blue Paladin's gritted teeth.

The Blade chuckled a little darkly. “Gotcha.” 

Lance wasn’t the only sharpshooter in the sack, as Keith immediately zeroed in on the little motions that had Lance seizing up under him. Eventually the Blue Paladin stopped responding entirely to any of Keith’s gentle inquiries, moved past pleasure and into near incoherence. Lance’s mouth went slack under the Blade’s, and Keith leisurely licked his way in once more. The Blue Paladin’s responses whittled down to only increasingly frantic thin gasps, minute hitches of his hips, and his hand clutching Keith’s ever tighter. 

The Blade would kill Zarkon with his bare hands, no bayard needed, if that’s what it took to ensure he came back home, back to this. To Lance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, that was a lot of fooling around. I'm exhausted too.
> 
> Next up, mushy stuff.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for feels, strap in!
> 
> Also, in addition to the originally planned single extra chapter, which will take place in this timeline, I'm going to add one more chapter where we skip ahead to season 6, right after Keith returns from his space whale adventure becuase I just HAD to add in some stuff about BEEF KEEF and Lance's reaction to his older, cooler, more grizzled man.

Keith cupped Lance’s cheek. “Shit, did I overdo it?”

The utterly dazed Blue Paladin’s only response was to sigh blissfully again and bury his face in the Blade’s neck. It had taken a lot of patience, more than the Blade would normally commit to, but due to sheer determination, a lot of lube, and so much careful navigation and finessing he should’ve gotten a Scout badge for it, Keith managed to introduce Lance to the wonderful world of prostate stimulation.

Neither of them counted on the last orgasm being so intense for the Blue Paladin that Lance nearly blacked out for a few tics. When he roused it was difficult to convince him to sit up and drink the water the Blade pushed on him; Lance immediately flopped back down after, tugging at Keith’s arm to join him.

“Lance, c’mon, we can’t stay in bed all quintent.” Keith pried his fingers off and swung his legs over to plant bare feet on the floor.

“Why not?” the Blue Paladin mumbled as he raised his hand to trail fingers lightly down the Blade’s spine. “We saved the day big time, we should at least get a full one off:”

The electronic ping that sounded from Lance’s helmet on the desk taunted them with its cruel sense of timing. With a dramatic groan the Blue Paladin shakily slid out of bed, and Keith took the opportunity to escape into the bathroom.

Lance flicked his helmet’s audio transmitter to his room’s com panel as he looked around, smiling a little crookedly at the two skinsuits on the floor. 

“Sup?” He wasn’t big on protocol at the best of times.

“Lance, good. You’re up,” Shiro’s nonchalant voice filtered into the room.

“Barely,” he replied as he popped a panel and grabbed a pair of blue boxer briefs from the clothes replicator. Ugh getting dressed. Nude was sooooo much more fun, especially with dark-haired, smoking hot company.

“Did you guys have a good time last night?”

Lance froze in the middle of hauling his underwear up. “Uhhhhhh.”

“Hunk told me you all went to some sort of music club. Must’ve been fun since it’s nearly mid-quintent and you’re the only who answered me with anything besides a growl.” Lance quickly found his jeans and yanked them on too. 

“Yeah, it was great! We really cut loose!” he replied a little too forcefully. 

“Glad someone had a nice time. Allura and I were up with the Blade leadership all night discussing the Prince.”

Lance made a rude noise at the reminder of Lotor’s continued existence, and he grinned when he heard Keith stifle a laugh from the bathroom.

“Speaking of Blades, did Keith spend last night on the Castle?”

“Yup!” Lance continued, rifling through the half a dozen identical shirts in the hatch. He could keep it short and sweet when need be; also he was an absolutely terrible liar, especially to Shiro.

“Good. From what I gathered the sleeping quarters on Marmoran ships are a little spartan. Figured he’d enjoying sleeping in his own bed for once.” Keith’s dark head peeked around the bathroom door. Lance turned to shoot him a lascivious look and directed a pelvic thrust in his direction.

Keith shot him the bird with a smile.

“Oh, totally. I’m sure he’s very well rested and ready to stab Lotor today, if that’s on the schedule.” Keith nodded seriously before ducking back into the bathroom. “Well, hey, Shiro, sounds like you had a long night, you should hit the hay. I’m starving and need breakfast sooooooo-”

“Alright, it looks like we’ll be on Olkarion for a few more quintents.” The last words were caught up in a yawn that sounded down the line. 

Lance fist pumped. Sweet! He and Keith had time to-

“Oh, when you see Keith tell him to contact Kollivan. I think he wants him back with his squad on Semfama to get the Zaiforge cannon online.”

Lance’s heart sank. 

“...yeah. Yeah, okay. I’ll tell him,” he responded listlessly as he watched Keith, who was now leaning against the bathroom door with a towel around his waist. Lance signed off without saying goodbye to the Black Paladin.

They both looked at each other a long moment; Lance was the first to break their gaze, and he sighed as he pulled his t-shirt on over his head. 

“You heard the guy. Time to go be a space ninja.” He turned away and dragged his hoodie off the back of the chair at his desk. “On the other side of the stupid universe,” he grumbled under his breath.

“Hey.”

He glanced over his shoulder at Keith, who hadn’t moved from the door but had crossed his arms over his bare chest. Classic closing off posture. Great. 

“I can’t stay because of this.” The Blade nodded at the clothes on the floor then directed a pointed look at Lance.

The Blue Paladin would’ve said something unpleasant, possibly unkind, or just mad. But he didn’t. This wasn’t Keith’s fault. Or even his. It was just...war. 

And Lance’s rotten luck to fall for a guy who’s destiny or mission or whatever was on the other side of creation. Why couldn’t he have gotten his pretty head out of his fantastic butt earlier when Keith was just down the hall?

The Blue Paladin wearily shrugged with a super faked indifference he totally didn’t feel and turned away. He slipped into his hoodie and pulled it up over his head, like that would help him hide away from the sour feeling starting to percolate in the pit of his stomach.

“Hey,” Keith voice came again, insistent.

“What!” Lance spun on his heel and almost recoiled because Keith was right there. Stupid, sneaky, silent, sexy ninja crossed the room in a fraction of a tic to be right in his face.

Keith looked at him seriously for a moment before he swallowed. Violet eyes darted down and away before they snapped back up to fix steadily on Lance. “But I’m not _leaving_ because of this either. Because of us.”

“Oh.” Because what else could Lance say? 

That sounded positive? 

Vague but positive.

Keith surprised him by grabbing Lance’s hoodie on both sides, then leaned up, actually on his tiptoes, which was something Blue Paladin might never recover from, it was that flipping cute. 

Then Keith kissed him, as light and careful as the first time Lance did it to him. It was only the fact that he knew, based on his last trip through a healing pod, he was in perfect health that prevented the Blue Paladin from worrying it wasn’t at all natural his heart suddenly thumped so hard he felt like it banged against the back of his ribs.

“Like I said, I need to be with the Blades right now. I know it’s where I’m supposed to be,” Keith relayed quietly, his mouth millimeters from Lance’s. “But you’re right. I’m the Red Paladin. So keep my Lion company until I come home. And I **AM** coming home.” 

It was kinda hard to kiss Keith back properly now that he was smiling again, but Lance gave it his best shot.

“Then I’m gonna want Red back, and I wanna see you in Blue.” Dangit, that might be the sweetest thing Keith ever said to him. Besides the filthy stuff, which was pretty great in its own right.

“I can do that. That sounds good.” Lance’s fingers fiddled with the hem of his jacket for a few moments before they moved to loop around Keith’s waist. They feathered over the dimples at the base of his bare spine; Lance had memorized them, even dragged his tongue briefly over them when Keith as breathed softly into his pillow. “And you can call me, maybe?”

Keith pecked him on the lips again, once, twice. Lance’s poor heart did the samba before the Blade stepped out of the reach of his arms, even if Keith didn’t get the stupid song reference, the cultural illiterate. 

“I can do that,” the Blade answered with a little smile before he dropped the towel and reached for his uniform. Lance had to resist the urge to get grabby because no no no, dressed Keith was no bueno. Naked Keith was definitely preferable. 

But it had to happen. 

And honestly? Watching Keith slither into his Blade of Marmora skinsuit was pretty darn hot. Reverse stripping was apparently one of Lance’s newly discovered kinks; it did involve the Blade sliding on gloves, after all. 

“Of course, you might be busy answering all your fan mail, **_Loverboy Lance_**.”

Lance gaped. “Oh no. No no no, you didn’t watch it, did you?” 

Sure it had been fun while it was going on and had drummed up a lot of support for the Voltron Alliance, but the idea of the stoic, effortlessly cool, Naruto running Blades of Marmora, much less Keith, watching the mighty Paladins of Voltron perform ice capades was cringe inducing. Lance had vainly hoped they’d be too busy sneaking into Galra bases to blow them up to watch the cheesy broadcasts.

“Sure did,” the Blade replied with a smirk as he sealed his suit back up and reached for his breastplate. “I’ve might recorded an episode or two. Allura makes a terrible me.”

Lance chuckled self-consciously as he scuffed his foot on the floor, a little embarrassed. “Yeah, well, it served its purpose, and we’re done with the dog and pony show, I hope.”

The Blade clicked into the last of his armor and violet tracks lit the room with a soft glow that reflected in Keith’s unique eyes. “That’s a shame. The rope thing you did was pretty good.” The way he said that, and the fingers that ghosted along Lance’s side, hinted he thought it was more than good.

“Oh! Well, in that case, maybe you can get a private show when you get back?” Lance offered hopefully with a waggle of his eyebrows. He hadn’t gotten a chance to really show Keith just how **limber** he was.

“Maybe. Now c’mon, you promised me goo.” To Lance’s surprise and delight when they exited his room Keith’s gloved fingers snagged his and tugged him down the hall, like the idea of getting some good old fashion green goo was something Keith looked forward to. And that Keith didn’t care if anyone else who might be in the Castle saw them holding hands.

Awesome! Too bad no one actually saw them; the Castle was totally quiet, no Alteans or Paladins made an appearance.

Breakfast passed too quickly for Lance’s taste, even with the two Paladins playing an awkward game of footsie under the table because it took Keith a couple of doboshes to realize Lance wasn’t kicking his foot by accident before he reciprocated, a disarming blush on his face. Lance almost put his elbow in his goo; he was too busy trying to re-memorize that pink tinge to Keith’s cheeks to properly pay attention to his meal.

Before he knew it they were back in Red’s cockpit, Keith once again at the controls and Lance back in his Paladin armor. Lance didn’t mind letting the the Red Paladin pilot one bit. It allowed him a last few doboshes to watch the Keith in his element, all confident skill and effortless synchronicity with his Lion. 

If Lance let the hand that was supposed to be braced on the back of the pilot’s chair wander to toy with Keith’s dark hair, well, no one said anything about it. Lance’s refused to feel guilty, it was nice hair, horrendous style aside, and he wasn't sure when...or if...he’d get a chance to run his fingers through it again.

When Keith’s head nudged back into that touch briefly Lance’s stomach clenched with a sensation that was both welcome and kinda painful. He knew he’d need to get used to that feeling, as it happened a couple more times as Keith flew Red back down to the surface of Olkarion with a few circuitous spirals over the continents to protract the flight just that bit longer. One time a dark gloved hand left a control stick to brush against Lance’s side as he stood next to the Blade.

When Red touched down near Keith’s Galra fighter, the Blue Paladin watched as the Blade closed his eyes, his dark fingers loose on the controls, in communion with the magnificent Lion a few last moments before they parted once more.

When Keith opened his eyes and looked up at Lance his expression was undeniably wistful. “I miss her.” 

“Yeah, I know, man. She’s one of a kind.” Lance received a warm wave of approval from the Red Lion against the back of his mind. He let his touch linger on the Blade’s shoulder as they moved to head down the ramp of the mighty robot’s mouth. Keith’s rose to brush Lance’s hand off so he could interlace their fingers again.

Lance was positive he had another goofy grin on his face as he looked down at their joined hands.

When they hit the ground Keith eyed the buildings across the plaza, where the Galra Prince was being kept, for a long moment.

“Don’t even think about it,” the Blue Paladin warned.

“I wasn’t!”

Lance favored the Blade with an arched eyebrow that spelled out absolute skepticism. “And this is why you’re a terrible diplomat, you couldn’t lie your way out of a paper bag.”

Keith huffed and knocked his shoulder into Lance’s before they turned to wander over to his small, dark craft. Keith let go of the Blue Paladin’s hand to press his palm to the side of the ship, and a panel lit up violet before a hatch opened near the cockpit.

“Guess this is it,” Lance said as blandly as he could possibly manage as one boot idly kicked against a few pebbles on the ground.

“And what’s ‘it’?” the Blade queried, peering at him.

The Blue Paladin shrugged, spinning is helmet in his hands, unsure how he should respond. 

It felt like whatever he said next would put some sort of label on whatever this was, define it, and he wasn’t at all sure he should. If it could be named. 

He wasn’t the one leaving, so the ball was in Keith’s court.

All Lance knew with absolute certainty was that he didn’t want it to just be this. 

Just one incredible day.

An unforgettable night.

Being with Keith like that had felt like an incomplete, sparking circuit in Lance had finally been closed, connected. Filling this void in him, one he’d worked so hard to ignore for so long, until his entire existence was brimming, overflowing with vibrant violet, an unforgettable luminescence that would leave his life in shadow if it was extinguished when Keith flew away.

Lance wasn’t sure how he would deal with it if it was just that, but he’d have to figure it out. 

But it would be hard, like super hard, harder than anything he’d dealt with before because when Keith came back, like he promised he would, it would be a challenge to work alongside him without feeling affected.

Now Lance knew how many scars Keith had, more than he’d expected. So many it made the Blue Paladin anxious as he stroked fingertips, pressed his lips, over each one, laying something soft and affectionate over each mark that spelled out the history of pain the Blade had suffered. 

Lance now knew that when Keith blushed it started over the bridge of his nose before dashing across his cheeks then down his neck to his chest. 

What Keith sounded like when a gentle kiss undid him.

How his body moved with Lance's, an effortless union their Lions might envy.

What his own name tasted like when Keith laced it into a kiss.

The Blue Paladin would to have to figure out how to deal with all this newfound knowledge, how it was going to have to be wrangled, Tetris-ed into the box he was already constructing in his head where it would have to be locked away, only to be opened and peeked at when he was alone. 

Maybe not even then.

But he’d do it, because Voltron was more important, the Blade of Marmora, the universe was more important than Lance McClain’s heart. 

Even if it didn’t feel like it at the moment.

Lance was knocked out of his introspective downward spiral when he was suddenly spun and backed against the side of the Galra ship. He barely had time to open his mouth to protest the rough treatment before he was shut up in the most unobjectionable way possible.

If he thought kissing Keith was enjoyable, sometimes so sweet he nearly got a cavity, other times hot enough to make him tremble from the smallest slip of tongue….well, he’d just learned there was another way the Blade could kiss him. 

In a way that made Lance’s knees buckle and the only thing that held him up was the force of Keith’s armorclad chest pressing him against the hull of an alien spacecraft.

It was the kind of kiss that couldn’t possibly be dismissed, much less ignored or locked away. 

It was meant to sear into the Blue Paladin’s memory and leave a scorch mark. 

Keith scarred him with this kiss.

Alright, okay, fine! Lance McClain was, indeed, a guy who whimpered!

And he didn’t care one whit because show him one person who wouldn’t make a pathetic noise when Keith Kogane laid one on them with so much fire, and he’d call them a dirty liar!

When the Blade finally backed off, leaving the Blue Paladin a pitiful noodle in danger of sliding down the side of the ship to flop on the cobblestones, Keith went and unleashed the nuclear option.

“Just because I said I couldn’t stay for this doesn’t mean I’m not coming **back** for it. For us.” the Blade murmured, his breath ghosting over Lance’s lips. “And Voltron too, of course,” he tacked on like an afterthought.

Okay, now THAT just was not fair.

But awesome!

The box of stuff Lance wasn’t going to look at was metaphorically tossed over his shoulder, and the list of junk he wasn’t gonna think about today was ripped into teeny tiny pieces and scattered like confetti.

“Th-that’s nice to hear.” Lance cringed at the crack in his voice, so he shut himself up by leaning down to kiss Keith right back, slinging his arms around his waist and actually lifting the Blade off his feet a few precious tics before Keith groaned a protest into his mouth and kicked his shin.

“Not sorry. I had to do it,” Lance laughed merrily as he put Keith down before he took permanent damage, but he didn’t let go just yet and they indulged in a few more doboshes of making out before they heard a tinny, electronic chirp.

Keith swore as he pulled back and lifted his hood to touch his communicator.

“I’m here….yes, Kollivan, I’m at my ship...leaving in a few doboshes. I’ll re-establish contact when I’ve rejoined Krellin squad on Semfama...confirmed. Out.” The Blade fingered his communicator again and looked up at the Blue Paladin. “Duty calls. Knowledge or death and all that Galra stuff.”

Lance frowned, and the fingers he had locked at the base of Keith spine tightened, keeping the Blade pressed against him a few more precious moments.

“How about we skip the death part. Entirely.” Lance McClain busted out his not-joking-around face. It was a rare one and not easily brushed off.

Keith nodded, his expression having slipped from soft to somber in the few tics it took to talk to his Blade commander.

“I’m serious, Keith, no more kamikaze stuff.” Lance leveled the Blade with an extremely grave look before he slowly smirked. “I didn’t even get a chance to blow you, and believe me you don’t want to meet your maker without that experience under your belt.” He leaned in to murmur, deliberately low and enticing, while staring directly into Keith’s violet eyes, “Just FYI, I don’t have a gag reflex.”

It took a couple of tics, during which Keith’s eyebrows did an unexpected dance, first furrowing before shooting up his forehead, before he laughed and pushed against Lance’s chest and right out of his arms, shaking his head. 

“You’re ridiculous.” The mild insult was delivered with a note of affection Lance hadn’t heard before yester-quintent but could definitely get used to. 

“Lance...I…” The Blade looked down and licked his lips before he muttered. “I gotta get going.” 

The Blade’s unique, vibrant violet eyes flicked up once more and the Blade spared the Blue Paladin a small, soft smile that had Mama McClain’s baby boy wanting to do something totally pathetic like cry or lock Keith in a cryopod so he couldn’t leave.

But the Blue Paladin did the mature, responsible thing and pushed off the hull of the ship as he leaned over to pick up his helmet where he’d dropped it on the ground when Keith devastated him with a kiss for the ages.

“Yeah, I know. Time to Naruto run head first into danger and kick butt. See ya, mullet.” Lance stepped back a few meters with a wistful look. He lifted his hand in a small wave, which Keith returned as he backed into the hatch. 

The bulkhead slid shut with a hiss, and he was gone. 

Lance skipped back a few more steps as the the ship lit up with the purple glow of the quintessence powered drive then hovered a few meters slowly before gaining altitude. Lance plopped his helmet on his head and grinned when it pinged as soon as the ship zipped up to the stratosphere and out of sight.

“Aww, babe! Miss me already?”

Keith’s voice sounded in his ear, “Babe? Really?” Lance could practically hear the smile in his voice.

He was totally going to call him babe all the flipping time now. 

“Nah, wanted you to tell everyone bye for me, especially Shiro.”

“Liar, you do,” Lance scoffed as he turned on his heel. “And yeah, sure thing, sam..ur...ai...” 

Shiro was standing a few meters away with a bizarre expression on his face. Either he was having gastrointestinal issues after eating something buggy on a stick or he was in pained shock from witnessing two of his Paladins macking on each other pressed up against a Galra fighter, one of whom was practically his little brother and the other was...Lance.

The Blue Paladin stared, caught flat footed, uncertain what he should say to his team leader even as he hissed into his communicator. “You jerk, you knew he was there!” 

“Bye, sharpshooter,” Keith chuckled with a teasing tone before the com clicked off.

Lance stifled a grimace at his butthead boyfriend because Keith totally had to be his boyfriend now to pay Lance back for having to have this conversation with Space Dad! 

“Shirooooo!” he exclaimed throwing his arms wide.

“Lance,” the Black Paladin cut him off with a raised hand and a voice way too weary for a 25 year old. “I’ve been up nearly 3 quintents straight, and I’m beat.” 

The Blue Paladin immediately dropped his arms and his overly cheery expression with a whoosh of relief.

“Just...use protection?” Shiro looked like he’d rather face Zarkon again in nothing but his birthday suit than have to say that.

“Too late!” Lance shot finger guns at the Black Paladin as he speedily backed away before turning to make a run for Red as soon as he heard Shiro splutter.

*******************************************************************************

“Maybe I overdid it,” Keith muttered to himself as he tapped on Lance’s cheek a few times in a vain attempt to rouse him. 

“Mmmmmnrrgghhhfff,” came the unintelligible reply from the Blue Paladin as he wound both arms around the Blade’s neck and buried his face under Keith’s chin.

Looked like he was stuck there for at least a few more doboshes, not that Keith was complaining. Lance was loose limbed and curled around him like a lethargic Zrelliod cephalopod. Keith lay there a while long, eyes closed, listening to the Blue Paladin’s occasional quiet sigh of satiation, breath puffing against the Blade’s neck.

But as tempting as it was to stay in bed for a few more vargas, Keith just couldn’t make himself do it. Not that he was in any sort of hurry to end...all this. 

He simply couldn’t lay around; he’d never been built like that. He could be training, or pestering Shiro and Kollivan for info on what the hell was up with Lotor. 

Or maybe he could spend some time with Lance doing...anything. Stuff besides sex. Like hanging out and shit. If they were going to be on Olkarion for a few quintents maybe they could explore the capital some more, or he could show Lance his Galra fighter, take him for a spin, or even let Lance try his hand at piloting it. 

Yeah, that sounded like an awesome idea.

To that end he gently squirmed out of the Blue Paladin’s embrace with a murmured “I'll be right back” when Lance made an definite noise of complaint. He filled a cup with water from the sink and bullied Lance into getting somewhat upright to drink it, amused by the tanned teen’s refusal to open his eyes or do anything besides try to drag Keith back down with him for more cuddling. 

Yeah, he knew it was cuddling. Fuck anyone who had a problem with that. Lance was gorgeous and warm and fit perfectly against him...and Keith needed to stop thinking about it, or he was going to let Lance drag him back to bed.

Saying the sex was great was one of the larger understatements of Keith’s life. But that wasn’t all he wanted from Lance, and he wanted the blue eyed boy to know that. 

“C’mon, Lance,” Keith cajoled as he didn’t fold under the gentle tugging at his arm. “We can’t stay in bed all quintent.” He turned to plant his bare feet on the floor and the gentle trickle of the Blue Paladin’s smooth fingers down his back reinforced he HAD to get them out of there or he’d wind up with Lance between his legs again and that would fuck up his whole plan to take the tanned teen on...well, he guess it might could pass for a date.

““Why not?” that quiet voice came, again tempting the Blade with with its sleepy siren call. “We saved the day, we deserve a full one off:”

Keith opened his mouth to explain his idea for a shitty space date. He knew how much Lance loved tacking “space” onto everything; he’d probably find it funny.

Then Lance’s helmet pinged with the tell-tale chirp of an incoming transmission from his team.

Keith wasn’t sure if he was grateful for it, as Lance immediately rolled out of bed to answer it with a groan, or annoyed the outside universe intruded on them before he was ready. And they were both still naked as fuck. With that in mind, Keith made a beeline for the bathroom in case whoever was on the other end opened a vid line.

When he heard Shiro’s voice he was glad he was in the other room because he 100% was not ready to face him. Not that he was ashamed or anything, he definitely was not. But he could already hear his basically brother’s voice providing some well-meaning, but not asked for, advice that getting together with Lance in the middle of a war probably wasn’t the best timing, affecting the team, blah blah. 

He loved Shiro, he really really did, but he was such a DAD sometimes when he was only a few years older than Keith. The qualities that made him an incredibly leader also lead to him being a stick in the mud about fun stuff sometimes.

If Shiro ever mustered up the courage actually ask Allura out Keith would only say he never thought he’d see the quiznaking quintent Takashi grew some balls with women.

“Did you guys have a good time last night?”

“UUUUUHHHHHHH…”

Keith snickered at the usually smooth talking Lance failing to come up with a response to that innocent question. Oh yeah, they had a REAL good time. He chuckled again when Lance made an obnoxious farting noise with his mouth when Lotor’s name came up. When he heard his own name he craned his head carefully around the edge of the door. When he saw Lance was on the audio com only, he breathed a sigh of relief. He’d tell Shiro when he wasn’t wearing just a towel and Lance was deliciously shirtless.

Said shirtless delicious guy threw a wink and a pelvic thrust in Keith’s direction which got him the middle finger in response and a smirk. This was cool, kinda funny, they were upright and sorta flirting and shit. It wasn’t awkward at all, which was a way better morning after than Keith had dared to hope for.

And he really needed to get dressed and get out of here before he changed his mind about going out and instead ripped Lance’s jeans down to his ankles and blew him until begged for mercy.

“Yeah, I’m sure he’s VERY well rested,” Lance continued to speak to Shiro but his eyes were fixed on Keith, “Totally ready to shiv Lotor.” Keith nodded quite seriously; he could do that THEN take Lance out for something buggy on a stick or whatever. That would make for a really nice day. He ducked back into the bathroom to take a quick piss while he had a bit of privacy, still listening to Shiro and Lance converse in the other room.

“Looks like we’ll be on Olkarion for a few more quintents.” Keith glanced in the mirror as he threw some water on his face and was amused to see Lance fist pump at the news. Cool, they could fly his fighter and find a few fun things to do, maybe head into the forest to the Olkari tree city. It reminded Keith of that ancient sci-fi movie Star Wars, the one with the teddy bear creatures who lived in cool treehouses.

“When you see Keith, let him know Kollivan wants him back on Semfama with his squad. We need that Ziaforge cannon back online.”

Well, shit. 

Keith paused in washing his face and frowned in the mirror at the sight of Lance behind him as his posture shifted from animated to slumped in two tics. He moved to stand in the doorway, watching as Lance turned his back on him, poking at the clothes replicator.

“Yeah...yeah I’ll let him know,” he heard the Blue Paladin say without an ounce of forced cheer in his voice, no smirk, no crisp agreement to the orders as he signed off. Lance was bummed Keith had to leave so soon.

Keith was too. He KNEW it would suck. He knew it and he did it anyway, he threw himself at Lance and let himself get bowled right back over in return. This was the only thing he regretted: how much harder it made leaving. It had never been easy, but this was infinitely worse. 

Because he knew Lance, how the damn guy could get into his own head sometimes in a way that made Keith’s usually morose, introspective nature look positively chill in comparison. He didn’t want to leave, but he had to because they both had their duty; Voltron, the Blade, the universe needed them to do this.

Didn’t mean Keith enjoyed it, or that he wanted Lance to feel as shitty as he did.

He had his work cut out for him, based on the look he caught in Lance’s eyes as he looked at him for a long moment before turning away to pull a shirt over his head, hiding the scratch marks Keith dragged over his back not vargas ago.

“You heard Shiro. Time to go be a space ninja.” Lance grabbed his hoodie and the jerky movements as he pulled it on betrayed him, even as his voice was level and calm. “On the other side of the stupid universe.” 

Keith heard that last bit, even if Lance mumbled it mostly to himself.

“Hey,” he prodded, arms coming up to cross over his chest, that feeling of being exposed creeping back up on him, but he needed to ignore that for now. Keith had to SAY something, use his damn words, find the right combination of sounds to make this...well, he couldn’t fix it, but there had to be something that would make it not so painful for Lance.

The Blade’s eyes drifted down Lance’s lean form, to the floor, falling on their shed uniforms tangled on the bulkhead.

“I can’t stay for this.” He frowned as he watched Lance’s face crease unpleasantly before it smoothed over again, and the Blue Paladin threw an incredibly fake indifferent look at him. The fact that he pulled his hoodie up was the other hint he wasn’t nearly as unaffected as he pretended. Lance's endearingly transparent quirk, it was practically a red flag he was upset about something or feeling homesick when he hid in his hoodie and avoided eye contact, turning away from the Blade.

Keith wasn’t about to let that happen, let this end on a sour note. Well, more sour than could be avoided. He crossed the room in two quick strides, reaching for Lance’s arm.

“Hey,” he said insistently.

“What?!” Lance flared at him, and it didn’t take a genius, or someone more emotionally well-adjusted than Keith, to know it was easier to show anger or irritation than vulnerability.

“But I’m not **leaving** because of it either,” Keith finished, meeting the Blue Paladin’s narrow gaze head on. “Because of...us” 

There was an “us” last night, this morning, something more than rolling around on the sheets, Keith knew it, even if he didn’t know the right words for it, how to say it without sounding like a kid with a schoolyard crush. 

“...oh.” Keith didn’t know if that really helped all that much, but Lance looked less ready to nail Keith with another slam to the solar plexus or stalk off to be moody.

Ok, so maybe Keith had caught Lance doing all that, sneaking off to be alone when his homesickness was too much or anything else happened that made him feel off-kilter or insecure. Then the Blade would notice Lance slipping out of the room so unobtrusively it took a few doboshes for the others to realize he’d gone. By then the Blue Paladin would be sitting by a viewport in some tucked away, rarely visited part of the Castle and sighing as he stared blankly out at the stars.

Maybe Keith had followed him a few times, watched Lance from afar, never quite daring enough to speak up, ask him what was wrong, offer to be an ear to listen. Even if he had no advice to give, no real attachments on Earth to miss, no family to worry where he’d gone.

But that was then. Now Keith was here and he desperately wanted to bridge this gap between them finally. He knew he couldn’t always rely on action with Lance. Words, thoughts, the sentiment behind them, were sometimes so much harder to put forth, scarier to reveal than the scars etched into his body, into his life.

The Blade hoped desperately this one little action might, somehow, spell out the volumes he’d yet to figure out how to say as he leaned up, fingers rising to fold into the well-worn, soft fabric of Lance’s hoodie and tug him close for a light kiss. Nothing heated or demanding; the only thing it promised was that Keith wanted him. So very much. He had for so long, and now that he knew what Lance’s mouth felt like under his, how smooth his skin was beneath his calloused hands, what the Blue Paladin's voice sounded like when crying out in pleasure, Keith knew he may always want this blue eyed boy.

“I need to be with the Blades right now. Lance, I know it’s where I’m supposed to be,” Keith relayed quietly, his lips brushing against the Blue Paladin’s once more, feather light, fleeting. “But you’re right. I’m the Red Paladin. So keep my Lion company until I come home. And I **am** coming home.” 

As far as the Blade was concerned home was wherever Lance and Shiro were.

It seemed he managed to find the right words after all, as the Blue Paladin smiled into the next kiss and slung his arms around the Blade’s waist. “And I’m gonna want Red back. I better see you in Blue.” Allura had a Castle, she could deal.

“I can do that,” Lance replied with a happier tone to his voice now, and Keith felt a little accomplished. He wasn’t exactly known for being the consoling sort, but maybe he wasn’t complete emotional dunce when it came to the Blue Paladin. “And you can call me maybe?”

“I can do that,” Keith responded with a little smile. He got that reference, but he knew how much it drove Lance crazy when he didn’t catch his little pop culture sayings, so sometimes he played dumb just to rile the tanned teen up. Although he still firmly believed just saying Voltron and ending the chant was the better way to do it.

He regretfully pulled away again, well aware if he didn’t confirm he was on his way to Semfama within the varga Kollivan would be in his earpiece with that incredibly effective, subtly disapproving tone most of the Blade leadership possessed. He quickly shimmied into his Blade suit, well aware azure eyes were watching closely. He suspected Lance was trying to memorize where the cleverly hidden seal on the suit was for future use.

“Course, you might be too busy to answer, what with all your fan mail, **_Loverboy Lance_** :” He might be banging the guy, and trying to date him if they ever got a damn break, but he would never be above roasting Lance when such a prime opportunity presented itself.

“Oh no no no!” Keith grinned as Lance’s face contorted, waving a hand at him frantically. “You didn’t watch that!”

“Sure did, might have recorded a couple of episodes too.” He might’ve watched them repeatedly also, when it was quiet and late and he was alone. It had been stunningly hilarious at first, watching them struggle with cheesy lines, ice skates, trite stereotypical roles, then it got...really good, actually. “Allura makes a terrible me.” That remained one of the most amusing aspects of the Voltron show. He still couldn’t figure out why they chose to call the Princess by his name, but he’d caught himself slamming a hand over his mouth a few times so his laughter wouldn’t be noted by his oh-so-serious Blade brothers-in-arms.

Lance idly kicked at the floor with a sneaker, looking uncharacteristically bashful for a few tics. “It served its purpose, and we’re done with the dog and pony show now.”

“That’s a shame,” Keith replied as he snapped on the last of his armor and stepped up to the Blue Paladin once more, fingers reaching out to ghost up his side as he smirked at him. “The rope tricks you did were pretty good.” More like scorching hot.

How the hell had he spent months around Lance and not know he could do THAT? His mouth had dropped open the first time Lance swung down from Red’s jaw, doing a fucking split in midair then some seriously sexy aerial acrobatics that had Keith looking around nervously, hoping none of the Blades noticed he was having problems with the tightness of his suit. He desperately wanted to know what the strong, bendy Paladin could do.

The thought made a flash of irritation race through him that he had to go. 

“In that case, maybe I’ll give you a private show when you get back,” the Blue Paladin offered and, damn, if that didn’t give Keith even more reasons to end this war quicker. Keith resolutely pulled his hand back before it snuck under Lance’s t-shirt.

The Blade was sorely tempted to demand to know exactly what a private show would entail, but he resisted because he really needed to start thinking with his other head around Lance. How the hell was he supposed to show the Blue Paladin he liked him for more than his stupidly hot body and pretty smile and contagious laugh and sexy legs and…"C’mon, you promised me food goo.”

Ok, fine, food was a decent distraction. And he was starving. Sue him, he burned a lot of calories the last few vargas. He snagged Lance’s hand and tugged him out of the room, bent on breakfast. If you’d asked him last year if he liked goo he would have scoffed in your face, but ages of eating Galran ration packs, so heavy on the protein Keith felt like he had the meat sweats, would change one’s tune. Besides, Hunk had programmed the goo dispenser so you could get green ooze that sometimes tasted like brown sugar oatmeal with an aftertaste like fruit juice, which was weird but not bad. Other times the goo’s taste could have passed for bacon, except for the slimy texture, and that was a little harder to swallow. But after months of bland Blade rations, the Keith was more than eager for it.

He was explaining to Lance how the Blade bases ran, what it was like to live among so many Galra, their training, answering each of his questions between hurried bites of delicious goo, which today somehow tasted a hell of a lot like mango, something he was going to thank Hunk for, when he paused at the light kick of the Blue Paladin’s foot under the table. Keith slid his foot back, assuming Lance was stretching his long legs, but a few tics later he was bumped again. He paused mid-chew and tipped his head to look under the table. Nope, plenty of room on both their sides for Lance to sprawl, so he resumed eating and describing the ration packs to Lance, who made appropriately grossed out noises as he played with his own plate of goo.

A third brush of the Blue Paladin’s legs had Keith huffing. “Lance if you want to put your feet up just say so.”

“...jeez, you’re lucky you’re super fine,” the Blue Paladin responded with a long-suffering sigh.

“Whu-?” the Blade queried with a mouth full of goo.

“Footsie, dingus! Can’t believe I have to explain it,” Lance grumbled before folding his arms over his chest with a pout on his face.

“.....ohhhh.” Keith had no idea how to respond except, after a dobosh, to slide his own foot under the table to press against Lance’s calf. He chuckled when the Blue Paladin jerked like he’d been zapped then looked under the table to confirm Keith was doing it deliberately before he grinned at him, a cute flush darkening his tan cheeks.

“He can be taught!” Lance teased

“Shut up, I thought you were kicking me!”

“Why would I kick you? I like you!” And there the blush went getting darker.

The Blade felt the heat start to crawl up his cheeks too, so he ducked his head to concentrate on his goo, speaking mostly to the plate when Lance shot him another question about what it was like working and living with the Blade of Marmora. And if he was the shortest Blade, to Keith's annoyance.

All while they kept shooting stupid tiny smiles at each other each time their legs brushed against one another's.

After breakfast, if Keith though he’d struggled a little watching Lance throw on a t-shirt that was nothing compared to watching him wriggle into his Paladin skinsuit, long, lanky limbs once again lovingly hugged by slick, inky material, then his armor, which made his already broad shoulders look really great and his narrow waist even more tempting to wrap the Blade's legs around.

Keith shook his head hard as he looked away when the Blue Paladin very deliberately slowly bent over to latch his shin armor on, grinning at the Blade the whole time.

“You’re a menace,” Keith grumbled as he pointedly looked in the opposite direction.

“Back atcha,” Lance said sunnily as he shot the Blade finger guns before they headed for Red’s landing pad a few levels below.

Back in Red, Keith happily at the controls, was both a blessing and a curse, as Keith loved flying the Lion so much, but each circuitous loop over the vast forests and valleys of Olkarion brought him closer to leaving. Red was omnipresent in his mind, a warm, comforting presence that overlaid his increasing anxiety the closer they got to the surface.

Red never spoke, not with words, not in a way a Paladin could explain to an outsider, but with images, sensations, that communicated its meaning, its intent in a way words could never fully express. 

Images of them flying together, fighting together, darting through the space between stars. Then images of Lane at the controls flitted through the Blade’s mine, Red’s approval of the pilot, how she encouraged him, protected him, his voice cajoling the finicky robot when he struggled with the difference in temperment, sensitivity, flying, and weapons style compared to Blue.

When they finally touched down near his Galra fighter Keith was left with a firm, indisputable wave of determination from Red that she would protect her pilot at all costs, Blue or Red, Keith or Lance, and the Blade closed his eyes, fingers lingering on the controls just a little longer.

_Please, Red. And thank you._

A soft touch to the back of his head, fingers sifting into his hair had the Blade opening his eyes to look up at Lance. “I miss her.”

“Yeah.” The Blue Paladin’s smile was soft, disarming as he glanced up, admiring the giant cat’s cockpit, her controls, her incredible presence. “She’s one of a kind.”

Keith finally, regretfully, pushed out of the pilot’s chair and grabbed the Blue Paladin’s hand once more as they walked down the gangplank as the great cat crouched to lower her head. The Blade’s face automatically turned in the direction of the building into which Kollivan, Shiro, and Allura had marched the manacled Prince Lotor yester-quintent.

What did Lotor want? Why had he fired on that Galra warship and defused Naxzela? If he was on the Alliance’s side why had he tried to destroy the Paladins on Thayserix, losing them in its strange atmosphere and splitting the team apart to pick them off one by one? What was his plan, his end game?

Keith squinted at the building, his jaw tightening as he recalled the smug Galra prince’s face and how much he longed to ram his luxite blade right through it.

As if he could read the Blade’s mind, or just his transparent expression, Lance tugged him hard in the opposite direction. “Don’t even think about it.”

“I wasn’t!” Keith protested, not at all convincingly based on Lance’s skeptical look. 

“Honestly, you couldn’t lie your way out of a paper bag.”

“Shaddup,” the Blade mumbled as he knocked shoulders with the Blue Paladin as they ambled towards his fighter. Keith pressed a hand to the side of the craft and it lit up violet before a hatch opened with a hiss.

Lance pulled off his helmet, spinning it in his hands, eyes looking anywhere but at the Blade. “I guess...guess this is it.” One boot shuffled at a loose cobblestone at their feet.

“And what is **it**?” Keith asked, moving in close and looking up at him, determined to catch those eyes one more time. Memorize their hue, how the right one had a little fleck of green in it. 

Stamp into his memory that Lance had a cowlick near his left temple he idly rubbed his fingers over in a vain attempt to smooth it down sometimes. That his skin was the color of coffee lightened with cream, his freckles were few and far between and mostly congregated over his shoulders as though he’d been out in the sun too long.

That when he kissed it was with a delicacy that so was good it almost physically hurt the Blade. When excited he sometimes forgot his English and murmured in his native tongue. His fingers could be gentle when tracing over a scar or hard when gripping Keith’s hair to drag him into a kiss.

That when he came his neck, his back, arched in a bow that made the Blade long to curve into him.

When Lance was sad he never hid it, he couldn’t, but he would walk away so others didn’t see. And it wasn’t because he was embarrassed of his feelings, more that the Blue Paladin never wanted to push his homesickness, his fear, his sadness on to someone else, as though making them responsible for his feelings. He tried to handle it all, alone, when he had so many to rely on.

Keith didn’t want him to feel like that anymore. 

Certainly, the Blade wasn’t the most emotionally sensitive Paladin, not by a long shot, but he knew something about going it alone. Until you found that one person who never saw you as a burden, never treated you like your wild swings of mood were an onerous chore they dealt with out of obligation. Someone who gave a shit.

Keith might never know the right things to say to the quick witted Blue Paladin, a little slow on the uptake for the subtle social stuff, but the Blade was good with action. And so far Lance had been able to read him pretty well; Keith hoped he understood this as well.

He slapped a grey gloved hand on the Paladin’s chest armor and shoved him into the side of his Galra fighter. When Lance’s mouth dropped open to complain at the rough treatment the Blade dove in, fingers immediately winding into soft brown hair, keeping Lance right there, as he tried to pour everything he fumbled to say into the kiss. 

How much he wanted, needed Lance, needed electric blue in his life, sibilant rapid fire Spanish he didn’t understand, needed not just someplace but _someone_ to call home. And he wanted to be that for the Blue Paladin too, a safe harbor in the chaotic, vast uncertainty of space and war. 

He knew that was a hard thing to try to be, much less promise, but he’d do his fucking best. Even if he wasn’t physically there, he was going to try hard to make sure the Blue Paladin knew he was there in the way that really mattered, that someone in this war-torn universe someone really fucking cared.

And he did. So much it scared the Blade more than Zarkon and the concept of never going back to Earth.

But Lance was worth it.

When Keith finally came up for air he was gasping quietly, like Lance stole it all right from his lungs. “...just because I can’t stay for this doesn’t mean…” His fingers trickled down to curl around the back of Lance’s neck. “It doesn’t mean I’m not coming **back** for it.”

 _I’m coming back for you_ , hung in the air, unspoken.

“For us.” Keith clarified, just in case this was one of those moments Lance was a little thick. It was known to happen; also the Blade knew he kinda sucked at this, but he was willing to try. He was tired of being scared.

“Voltron too, of course,” he threw on there, just to cover all the responsible bases, not that Lance needed it, as his expression was a little stunned. In the good way. Had he honestly thought Keith would do anything else? Like Lance said, he couldn’t lie his way out of a paper bag; there was no way he’d be able to return to Voltron and not feel affected every dobosh, every tic by the incredible day, the even more incredible night, he’d shared with the Blue Paladin. 

“That’s nice to hear,” Lance murmured and dipped his head down to kiss the Blade back, and Keith slung his arms around his neck, hanging on for those last few tics before reality reasserted itself and Kollivan started riding his ass about getting into orbit.

Or the guy he was nuts about decided to be a jackass and pick the Blade up off the ground.

He kicked Lance in the shin.

“Ow, haaa. Not sorry, had to do it,” the Blue Paladin laughed as he put Keith back on his feet before the Blade did some real damage. Keith might kinda like the fact Lance was a shade taller than him, but that didn’t mean the guy should get a big head about it.

Didn’t stop him from pulling the Blue Paladin down for another kiss, then another until he was in danger of hauling Lance into the cramped cockpit of his fighter and contorting him into some sort of sexy position that would definitely make him late getting back to Semfama.

Kollivan had amazing, or maybe really shitty, timing because Keith’s communicator chirped in his ear and he pulled back regretfully, going so far as to put a hand on Lance’s chest plate to keep him from swooping in for another kiss because, yeah, no making out while his superior in the Blade could hear them.

“I’m here, Kollivan. I’m leaving in a few doboshes. I’ll re-establish contact when I’ve rejoined Krellin squad on Semfama. Out.” He thumbed off the com line and looked up at Lance with a frown he couldn’t help. “...duty calls. I gotta get back. Knowledge or death and all that Galra shit,” he joked lamely.

The Blue Paladin tightened his arms around the Blade’s waist and leveled him with a very serious look, especially for Lance. “Skip the death part entirely. I mean it, Keith.” Lance wasn’t often very grave, but when he was it had maximum effect, and the Blade nodded slowly. “No more kamikaze stuff.”

Keith would have dearly loved to promise that, but he had to be a realist. But he wasn't quite as ready to throw himself headfirst into a suicide mission anymore. He had someone, well more than one, but Lance was foremost in his thought who would be not only angry but possibly devastated if he got himself killed.

It might be a grim, dark thought but, somehow, it was a nice one too. War was weird like that, as was being a half alien who flew a giant robot cat sometimes.

“Besides,” Lance confided, dipping his head down a few scant centimeters so his nose brushed the Blade’s, “I didn’t even get a chance to blow you. It would be a real shame to meet your maker without that under your belt.” Keith nearly choked on his spit. “FYI, I don’t have a gag reflex.”

Previously that sort of line would’ve made Keith roll his eyes in Lance’s face and discretely adjust his pants behind the Blue Paladin’s back. Now it made Keith’s eyebrows shoot up his forehead at that extremely intriguing tidbit of information. He felt the heat start to crawl from his cheeks down his face, heading quickly south.

Yeah, no, he was going to have to get used to this. Lance saying this to him, promising...all sorts of amazing things. He had major incentive to come back soon with all limbs intact.

“Y-you’re so fucking ridiculous!” he huffed with a barely disguised smile as he pushed out of Lance’s arms. “Lance I-”

Keith chewed on his lower lip as his eyes darted down and away, uncertain if he should say the words that longed to fling themselves off the tip of his tongue. No, that would be really fucking unfair, right when he was about to fly systems away. If Lance did that to him he’d be pissed. And happy, but pissed it was said in a situation when he couldn’t do anything about it.

Next time. When he comes home. Took Lance out on a shitty space date. Yeah, he could wait until then.

“I...I gotta go.”

“Yeaaaaah,” Lance huffed with a drawn out sigh. “Time to Naruto run head first into danger and kick butt. See ya, Mullet.” Black gloved fingers came up to lace lightly into the Blade’s hair one more time before the Blue Paladin pushed off the side of the fighter and walked backward a few meters away to give the Blade clearance for take-off.

Keith procrastinated a few tics more, burning the image of Lance into his memory before he ran out of excuses and lifted a hand, curling his fingers once at the tanned teen, before he ducked into his ship and the hatch sealed shut behind him.

“Right, Semfama. Gotta get that cannon back online,” the Blade muttered to himself as he slid into the pilot’s chair, working hard to center his thoughts on the mission. To tear them away from the pull of the Blue Paladin and escape, albeit regrettably, from the gravity well of want that threatened to make impossible for him to nudge his ship to take off.

He glanced out the side viewport as his fighter ascended and smiled as Lance raised an arm and waved vigorously at him, brown hair blowing in the light Olkarion breeze, ignorant of the figure standing meters away.

Once he broke the upper stratosphere he keyed his com line to the Paladin frequency.

“Awwww, baaaabe, miss me already?” Keith grinned, glad Lance couldn’t see how that stupid nickname affected him.

“Babe, really?” He knew acting like he hated it would only encourage the Blue Paladin to do it more. “Nah, just wanted to ask you to say bye to everyone for me. Especially Shiro.”

“Liarrrrr,” Lance purred in the Blade’s ear, and Keith savored the little shiver that raced through him. “You totally do. Sure thing samu…rai.”

Ha, Keith figured he must’ve just spotted Shiro, who he assumed had seen, if not everything, enough to break the news his little brother and right arm Paladin were way more than friends now. Fooling around, fucking, dating, whatever you wanted to call it they were most definitely doing it.

“Quiznak, you knew he was there!” Lance’s outraged tone made the Blade outright laugh down the com line.

“See ya, sharpshooter.” Keith signed off but not before he caught Lance’s irritated hiss at his sneakiness. Well, Lance was the smoother talker of the two, if anyone could sidestep an awkward conversation with the Black Paladin it was him. Or he’d at least make Shiro regret asking anything.

As he flew over the southern pole of Olkarion, setting a heading for the Semfama system, Keith opened a new line, this time to the Yellow Paladin.

“Hey, Hunk, you awake?”

“Mgh, yeah. Stayed up too late talking to Shay but I’m ali-WHOA! Heeeeey, you and Lance sure looked friendly when you bailed on us last night.” The Yellow Paladin wasn’t very subtle, but he also wasn’t intrusively nosy. However, he was Lance’s best friend so the Blade didn’t blame him for prodding for information.

“Yeah, we did.” Keith cleared his throat, hoping Hunk didn’t press for more because what else could he say without straying into the really personal, and hot as fuck, stuff he had zero intention of sharing details about with anyone. 

“About that...do you have a way of setting up an dedicated one-to-one com so...so...um...we could keep in touch?” He rubbed the back of his neck, not used to asking for help from many people, but he knew Hunk wouldn’t tease him.

“Um, yeah, sure. I helped Pidge build a quantum entanglement cryptocom so she and Matt can talk from pretty much anywhere, even across multiple systems. Unless you’ve got the key you can’t interpret the data embedded in the subfragmented single-modulated refract-”

“ ** _Thanks, Hunk_** ,” Keith interrupted meaningfully, cutting off the engineer mid-science rant. “So it’s a secure line?”

“Pffft, yeah, otherwise the Galra, the bad ones, not you guys, the Blades, you know what I mean, could intercept and track it back to the source and that would suck…wait, you’re not going to use this for, like, gross stuff are you?”

“Ugh! Hunk!” Keith huffed, reigning his frustration in, not that he really blamed the Yellow Paladin. That’s not to say that might not happen, but that wasn’t the point. “I just wanna keep in touch with Lance,” he admitted, eyes focused on the star field ahead of him as he waited for the quintessence hyper drive to cycle up before making the first of several jumps it would take to get back to Semfama.

“Sooooo you and Lance, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Seriously!?”

“Yeah.”

“Whoa."

“Yeah.”

“Aaaand that’s all I’m going to get out of you, isn’t it?”

“Yeah...although, I’m sure Lance will be happy to fill you in on all the details,” Keith said like it was a threat.

“Ah quiznak,” Hunk groaned.

“Yeah,” the Blade chuckled. 

“Ok, I’ll get something set up for you guys. This is actually kinda sweet, Keith.”

“Huuuuunk,” the Blade groaned.

“C’mon! That’s not a bad thing, Lance’ll really like it. He’s probably super bummed you had to leave so soon.”

The Blade stifled a frown at the reminder, and he sincerely hoped the distraction of the other Paladins, ducking Shiro, running around Olkarion for a few quintents, maybe to play another pick-up game of space soccer with the locals would keep the Blue Paladin from being bummed.

“Keep an eye on him for me, will you?”

“No problem, that’s what friends are for.” Keith smiled at that. Yeah, that's what friends, family were for.

“Thanks, man. I hope to see you guys again soon.” 

“You too. And I’ll reach out when the cryptocom is ready. You’ll be on Semfama for a few quintents?”

“Probably. I owe you, Hunk.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say no to a few of those Blade ration packs. See if I can whip up something new with all that weird protein.”

“You got it, buddy. And, hey, don’t tell Lance you’re working on this. I think he’d like it as a surprise.”

“Awwww, Keith that’s so swee-” The Blade clicked the com off before he had to listen to Hunk gush again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up, MOAR feels because long distance boyfraaaaaaaanz.
> 
> Also, I wrote this before the BIG REVEAL about Shiro's sexuality, otherwise I wouldn't have tossed in the asking Allura out line. HOW EXCITING IS THE NEWS THOUGH?!?!?!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm hitting you with as many feels as I can this week to toughen you up for next week, the FINAL chapter, which is gonna be a doozy.
> 
> So how do the boys do the thing after they did the thing? Very sweetly it turns out.
> 
> P.S. I always miss typos in proofreading, I'll go back and fix them later!

After he came out of a gladiator training session sore and sweating, Lance flung himself over the nearest comfortable piece of space furniture and proceeded to groan. Hunk interrupted his self-pity session by slapping a bright purple, palm sized object in his hand.

“What’s this?” He queried, squinting at it from his upside down position where he was sprawled in the sunken communal room, legs flung over the back and head tipped at the floor. It looked sort of like the data pad Pidge carried around and sometime let him use to snap selfies since it worked almost like a super duper smart phone, except the coverage plan didn’t reach Earth.

Hunk shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “Just something someone wanted you to have.”

Lance squinted even harder at the device, suddenly suspicious, “Yeeeeah, that sounds very vague and therefore it’s probably a horrible trap. Tell Pidgeon nice try.” He attempted to hand it back to Hunk, but the big guy held up his hands.

“No no no, made it myself...because….er...oh man, this is awkward.” Hunk started backing away quickly. “Look, trust me, you’ll like it. I did my good deed, but I promised I wouldn’t say anything, so just take it and spare me the details!” The Yellow Paladin hauled butt out of the room to leave Lance to keep doing what he was doing, which had been training to distract himself, flopping on every piece of furniture in a seemingly uncomfortable positions, and sighing a lot for last seven quintents and 4 vargas since Keith left.

“I swear if this explodes in my face…” the Blue Paladin grumbled as he frowned at the purple pad again then prodded it with two fingers.

He had to shut his eyes when it lit up; jeez he might need sunglasses to use this thing, whatever it was. The display blipped on and all he saw was a weird grey hallway light with violet lights that ran along the ceiling; for some reason the hallway was moving.

“What the quiznak?” Lance muttered as squinted at the weird image some more.

A muffled swear came from the pad. 

“...Keith!?!” He’d recognized that profanity laden voice anywhere.

“Hang on...damnit...how do...ah!” The screen view changed and yup, there was the Blade of Marmora.

“Keith!” So much for playing it cool, something Lance had resolved to do when they got a chance to speak again, which would probably wind up being from the Castle bridge as Voltron and the Blade had one of their tele-meetings regarding the ongoing war effort. 

Wouldn’t do to shoot him a wink in front of the war council. At least not when they were looking.

“Yeah. Hey,” the Blade responded with a little smile. 

Lance flipped over and sat up quickly. “Hey! Wow, wasn’t expecting the call. Or, er, maybe I called you? Where are you?”

Keith shrugged, clearly walking as the view over his shoulder changed as he turned a corner. “I honestly have no idea. Kollivan said it’ll be another quintent before we arrive at the mission staging site. I’ll get briefed then.”

“Communicators usually need a determined trajectory for supra-light data transmission of this resolution.” Lance frowned. Yes, he paid attention to this stuff and knew you need to have a destination to know where to direct a flipping call. “How did I even reach you?” 

“Quantum entanglement something,” Keith shrugged and paused, lifting his arm past the screen, then ducking into a darker space before flicking on a light. “Hunk could better explain it, Pidge has something like this to talk to Matt. It’s some new gizmo they cooked up.” The Blade looked away from the pad, hand coming up to finger comb through his messy hair then rub the back of his neck.

Lance blinked.

Keith went to Pidge and Hunk to get some weird tech...so he and Lance could call each other?

“He managed to get mine to Semfana on an Alliance cargo transport 30 doboshes before I left, so it was a close call,” Keith continued, still not looking at the screen as he detached his Marmora hood from his suit and dropped it.

Lance blinked again.

He got the communicator sent to him via space transport?

“...uh...so we can talk...not all the time because I know you’re busy and I’m in the middle of a mission...so I get it if you’re not able to pick up or I can’t-” The Blade was fighting to pull his mask module from his hair as he spoke

Lance blinked a third time.

Was Keith nervous rambling?

Actually now he was frowning. “What? You’re looking at me weird. And not saying anything, which is even weirder.”

Lance swore to quiznak his heart skipped a beat. He was going need a healing pod on the regular if he was going to be doing whatever this was with Keith. 

His head cocked to the side as he smiled, so very charmed by the present. “This is really thoughtful. Thank you, babe.” Yup, **definitely** calling him babe all the time.

This time it was the Blade blinking and speechless, although the flush that quickly stole over his face spoke volumes. “Whatever, s’not that big a deal,” he eventually managed to mutter.

“Ah ah ah! Shut up and take the compliment, mullet. You’re a big gooey stabby marshmallow who was dying to talk to meeeeee,” the Blue Paladin sing-songed with a grin. 

“Nope, I regret everything now. Smash that pad,” the Blade snipped but Lance knew he didn’t mean it.

“Awwww, but if I smash your present how are we gonna have quantum entanglement sexting sessions?”

The blush on Keith’s face jumped to 11. “That’s not why I got it!”

Lance let one eyebrow eke up as his smile morphed into a smirk, “That’s not a no on the sexting.”

“Ugh, I didn’t do it just to get you naked!” Keith flung himself horizontal on some surface, dark hair spreading behind his head. The Blue Paladin thought he looked kinda angelic in a sexily murderous way. “And I share a berth with 2 other Galra on this ship in rotating shifts, so that’s not happening.”

“Just pulling your blade, Keith, unclench.” Lance likewise flopped onto his back, one leg kicked over the back of the space sofa. “Seriously, it’s nice to see your stupid face. This is very cool. Is it a secure line? The Galra aren’t going to be able to track the signal to source, are they?””

The Blade seemed to simmer down a bit after that and Lance was pleased that after a little initial awkwardness a half varga passed, the two of them just playing catch up. 

How the Zaiforge cannon was. Did Keith get to explore Semfama at all before he had to bolt for his mission. Did Lance meet up with Sroji or check out the capital further. How was everyone, yadda yadda small talk.

But it was cool, like, super cool because he knew Keith was NOT a small talk kind of guy. He also wasn’t the sort of guy to fake interest in stuff, so Lance was digging the fact that Keith was asking him all sorts of things and not being all prickly and distant, which he’d honestly been worried about. 

Yeah, they parted on great terms, but they **had** parted and Lance was quite new to the whole space boyfriends situation.

The Blue Paladin was just complaining to Keith about the new setting on a gladiator droid that knocked him on his butt so hard he was definitely going to have a bruise, when Coran practically yelled “Ah, hello Number 4!” at the pad screen as he leaned over Lance’s shoulder and made him yelp in surprise.

Keith snickered, “Oh, man, your face. Wish this thing had a screenshot option, that was amazing.”

“Bite me, butthead.” Lance immediately speedwalked for his quarters before someone else gave him a heart attack. Another half a varga passed of them shooting the breeze and occasionally roasting each other passed before the Blue Paladin yawned and Keith suggested he get some sleep, but not before the Blade let him know that he might not be able to call for a few quintents, depending on how the mission went.

Lance didn’t share with the other teen exactly how that sort of consideration made him feel, in case he opened his mouth and rainbows of happiness shot out.

“You could sent a data chirp, just to let me know you’re alive and not dangling from the ceiling of some Galra torture chamber,” Lance joked, although the worried crease on his forehead you could see from Earth gave away his anxiety.

“I could do that,” Keith nodded, huffing to blow some hair out of his eyes as he rolled on to his side, the cryptocom held close to his face. “You can too, in case you’re too busy blowing up warships with Voltron to pick up.”

“Roger that, samurai,” Lance replied with a little smile. They didn’t say anything for a dobosh, Lance content to just look at the Blade and internally dance over the fact that Keith totally made an effort, an AMAZING effort, to not let that one incredible night be only that. 

Oh yeah, the Blade was totally Lance’s boyfriend, whether either one of them had the guts to say it or not. Lance certainly wasn’t going to do it first, in case he popped this hopeful little bubble prematurely.

“Ok, now you’re just staring,” Keith complained, but he didn’t exactly hang up, Lance noted.

“Shut up, you’ve got a nice face. Too bad your hair sucks,” Lance retorted.

“You weren’t complaining about my hair the other night,” the Blade reminded him with a smirk, and Lance pouted.

Not fair! He was supposed to be the smooth one, Keith could **not** one up him on this!

“Sure wasn’t. Nice handhold for when I raw you from behind,” he replied with a sunny smile.

Okay, so that was more crude than smooth, but the Blue Paladin mentally marked a point for himself when Keith apparently choked on his own tongue. Lance signed off with a snort of laughter.

While Keith’s leaving sucked, big time, Lance was surprised that it wasn’t quite as sucky as he’d feared since they seemed to be doing the cross-systems super long-distance thing.

And Keith _initiated_.

Lance dropped the com pad and hauled his pillow over his face to stifle the excited shout into the synthetic space down. This was awesome! 

Well, okay as awesome as it could be, given Keith was who knows how far away and starting another dangerous mission. But the Blue Paladin was determined to be a complete and utter optimist about this, because, hey, they had sex! Epic, exhausting, mind-blowing banging. Dating would be a piece of cake.

It turned out dating was not a piece of cake, unless it was the rock hard and translucent kind Hunk made by accident one time that was totally inedible and resulted in a cracked tooth for anyone who tried one.

Although Lance and Keith traded chirps, little blips of code that could only have come from the other’s cryptocom pretty regularly, every 40 vargas or so, they managed to coordinate face to screen time not nearly as frequently. 

When they did manage to find 2 tics to breath and caught each other, they would spend vargas talking about anything, everything, and a lot of nothing sometimes. 

Lance wasn’t sure if the night they stayed up too late criticizing each other’s taste in movies was awesome or he should be horrified Keith liked WESTERNS. He could not be involved a space cowboy, it was too cliche! 

Now a space ninja, that was cool.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty darn close, as far as Lance was concerned. Compared to how he used to feel about Keith, i.e. burning, bitter jealousy and antagonism, he found it much easier to deal with him now. And it wasn’t just the raw attraction. 

What he used to think was rude bluntness from the Blade was actually Keith cutting to the heart of the matter. He was so very straightforward, something the Blue Paladin appreciated when he was surrounded all quintent by the complex, sometimes impenetrable machinations of waging an intergalactic war. 

When Lance ranted at him over the com about a bad day, instead of giving him pointless assurances the Blade simply let Blue Paladin vent until he ran out of steam, then asked him what was really bothering him. 

They saw things so differently sometimes, which used to lead to arguments. Now it was useful to bounce his thoughts off the Blade, get a different perspective. When Lance was licking his emotional wounds when Shiro **yelled** at him, Keith offered insight into why the Black Paladin may have reacted so harshly and encouraged Lance to be the bigger guy and figure out a way to work around it, not just slouch off to sulk.

One call they tortured each other with the various foods they missed, and Lance was pretty sure he nearly made the Blade sob in hungry frustration as the Blue Paladin lovingly described the absolute perfection that was his mother’s tamals.

“Hey, babe,” Lance sighed with a tired smile as he flopped into Red’s cockpit with a groan. It had been a very long last few quintents. And 32 and a half since Keith left.

“Hey. Wow, you look like shit,” the blunt as ever Blade noted.

“Awwwww, you look like hot garbage too, sweet talker,” Lance cooed sarcastically.

“Thanks,” Keith responded with zero offense taken. “What’ve you been doing that’s got you so wrecked.”

Lance pulled a face. “Lotor’s errands. He’s sucking up to Allura and Shiro by giving us intel in little drips, so we go out on missions based off his stuff, blow up some things, steal some data. Come home and watch him pat himself on the back from inside his stasis field, all smug and junk.”

Keith’s face wrinkled in disapproval. “Yeah, the Blade’s completed two raids based on his information. Both successful.” He looked like he regretted they’d gone so well.

“I don’t trust him,” Lance complained.

“You shouldn’t. He’s Zarkon’s kid, so being a douchey asshole is probably a genetic trait.” 

Lance chuckled, Keith could be pretty darn funny when he was dishing out insults. “Well, at least J’lazim is 100% Galra free now.”

Keith cocked his head at that. “J’lazim is in the Xaxos sector.”

“Yuuuup,” Lance popped his lips and slouched back in his seat. 

“I’m on Reiphod.”

“Uh huh, cool place, we did a Voltron show there, very clean.” Lance rubbed his hands down his face, trying to scrub away his creeping exhaustion.

“Lance, I’m on Reiphod _right now_ ,” Keith said slowly, deliberately.

“...” Lance stopped slouching immediately, his weariness suddenly vanished as he darted his hand out, the glow of Red’s vidscreens filling the space around him. “Ohhhhhhhh! I can be there in 4 vargas, unless Allura’s feeling generous and lets me wormhole! I mean...if you’re free. That was you asking me to swing by, right?”

“Yes, Lance that was me asking. I don’t think we’ve been within 2 dozen sectors of each other since…”

“Olkarion.” 

“Yeah, exactly.”

“Say no more, I’m coordinating this booty call as we speak!” Lance winked at his cryptocom, already tapping out a message to Shiro, more like a pathetic spate of begging to let him pop over to Reiphod for at least at least a quintent or two before he had to come back to the Castle.

“Laaaance, this isn’t a booty call,” Keith complained. “Is that all you think ab-” The Blade’s face scrunched up on the screen. “Wait...am I **your** booty call?”

The Blue Paladin didn’t at all like the sour look crossing Keith’s face, and it took him a second to realize what it was all about. “What? No! Jeez, man, I’m insulted you think that! I am not that shallow.” He pouted at the screen, pleased when Keith’s expression slid from annoyed to contrite. He’d gotten a heck of a lot better at reading the guy.

“I don’t think you’re shallow,” the Blade grumbled, “But you do talk about it a lot,” he pointed out.

“Well, it was pretty awesome, and I would love an encore,” the Blue Paladin admitted, squinting at the vidscreens, tapping his fingers as he waited for Shiro to reply. “But would I badger you to tell me about growing up or what you did after you left the Garrison or about that Plaxian raid if all I cared about was your bod? Gimme some credit, Keith.”

Now the Blade looked well and truly uncomfortable, shifting in front of his screen. “I didn’t mean...that. I don’t want to fight, Lance.”

“Good, me either. So you’ll have to make me forgive you for your baseless insinuations by letting me suck you off when I get there in 4 vargas! ” The Blue Paladin shot finger guns at the Blade the moment Shiro’s reply came in. “Cuz I’m on my way, babe! Red, wanna go see Keith? WHOA!” The Blade saw the Blue Paladin jolt in his flight seat. “Ha, guess she does, she just broke orbit and probably a new speed record.”

The Blade blinked, looking a little stunned. ”O-okay. See you in a few vargas then, I guess?” 

“Roger that, samurai,” Lance replied with a wink before signing off, chuckling to himself at Keith’s expression. Ok, so maybe that wasn’t the best way to go about ending the conversation, but he needed to concentrate on flying as fast as Red would allow, which was pretty darn quick as they were out of the J’lazim solar system in tics.

Besides, the Blue Paladin needed to think without Keith’s distracting face in front of him. 

Had he been implying that naughty fun times was all he was interested in? 

He hadn’t thought so, but maybe he’d made too many quips about it, and it lead Keith to think so. Lance would totally dial back the sexy jokes and flirtation, if need be. Heck, he’d be a perfect gentleman, no problem. 

He just really **REALLY** wanted to see Keith.

****

****

Sure, he wouldn’t at all mind if they got a little busy, or a lot busy, but if the Blade preferred something a little more G-rated the Blue Paladin could 100% do that.

Also, this little meetup was very spontaneous and there were no space malls nearby that Lance knew of so, yeah, no lube. 

Actually, it was nice that Keith obviously wasn’t in this whatever they were just for the sex. Meant he wasn’t just after Lance for his “magic” junk, as he called it when they hooked up.

But, man, it had been INTENSE! Of course it had been on Lance’s mind a lot, especially at night when touching himself was a lot less satisfying in some ways, since it wasn’t Keith, and more enjoyable in others because he had a whooooooole lotta brand new spank bank material.

But enough! Ok, alright! Pure thoughts, well, pure-ish, the kind that made something in Lance’s stomach go all gooey in the way that made him feel kinda nauseous but in a good way, rather than making his Paladin suit tight.

Like Keith telling him about his dad, hard as it was for him to open up about that particular topic. But Lance had gently steered him away from talking about how his father died and instead asked him about other stuff, like did they ever see a ball game together or go on a vacation. The good things about having a family, even a lost one. Lance knew no matter how long ago they were left behind or how far away you roamed, family was never far from your heart. 

Lance could barely breathe when he thought about his; he’d no idea how Keith hadn’t suffocated on grief. The Blade’s inner strength impressed him so much it scared the Blue Paladin. He may never be as strong as Keith, but he thought...maybe he didn’t have to be. Not in the same way. He liked to think he had his own strengths, and maybe his could compliment the Blade’s.

After all, they did make a good team.

When Keith ran out of things to say about his Dad, which had been pretty quick considering the Blade was, sadly, very young when he died, Lance prodded him about how he met Shiro. 

That got Keith to open up more easily. He talked about learning how to fix hoverbikes by working on his dad's old ride alongside him. When things got too frustrating at the group home the eventual Black Paladin would take Keith to tour the Galaxy Garrison, show him the gym and let the furious boy pound out his frustrations on a bag instead of another kid’s face.

Lance shared how when he got in trouble at school, not much for fighting but more causing havoc in class with his cutting up or coaxing other kids into silly, unruly dares, he was punished with bathroom cleaning duty both in their house and in the family corner store. It was tough call which was worse, innumerable strangers or the bathroom his sisters, brothers and the odd cousin or two all shared with him.

It wasn’t the same, not by a long shot, but this wasn’t about trying to one-up each other. He just wanted to learn Keith better, and for the Blade to know him in return.

It was cool. Lance had been given the opportunity to ask all sorts of things he’d not gotten around to when the violet, violent teen had been the Red Paladin. Witnessing Keith slowly opening up, call by call, was like unwrapping the most awesome present ever, a little bit at a time. 

Learning his boyfriend got expelled from the Garrison for punching Iverson, actually laying him out with a quick one-two punch combo, for lying about the Kerberos mission was shocking, amazing, and also might’ve been a bit of a turn on for the Blue Paladin.

Lance hadn’t been able to contain his impressed reaction, clapping a hand over his mouth to stifle his gasp as he was tucked in a corner of the kitchen, snacking on goo experiments while Hunk tried to make them taste like garlic knots. He so so sooooo wished he could have seen that. Somewhere they had to be video; when they got back to Earth he was going to demand Pidge use her terrifying hacker skills to find it.

Time was so weird in space because Lance was positive Reiphod appeared on Red’s viewscreen a heck of a lot quicker than it should have. Or maybe his, Keith’s, their Lion was just that fast.

“Alright, pretty lady, let’s find your Paladin. You’ve got his ship’s signature, right?” Red pulsed a definite affirmative at the back of his mind, and something like what passed for pleasure in the great cat laced through it. “Thanks, Red,” he chuckled. “I’ll make sure to let you two have some alone time too. You know how much Keith loves his bonding moments.”

When the great cat landed Lance was delighted to find the Blade’s fighter parked on a rock outcropping overlooking a pristine white sand beach, albeit the water was pink rather than blue. Lance strolled down the jaw ramp, helmet tucked under his arm, and grinned at stupid freaking sexy Blade leaning against the side of his own craft.

“The Blade of Marmora gave you a beach assignment? It is too late for me to do the trials and join up?” he called.

“Nah, you’re not meant to go through that door,” Keith scoffed as he pushed off his ship and made a beeline straight for the Blue Paladin, intent clear in his every step. 

“He-ey,” Lance stammered at the look in Keith’s eye, “Ah, I was kidding with the forgiveness blowjob. You know me, always kidding! We can totally just hang, I’m 100% down with that because I’m not a complete horndo-” The last of the Blue Paladin’s babbling was shoved back in his mouth right alongside Keith’s tongue.

When the Blade finally let him up for air Lance was a little weak kneed, so it wouldn’t have been a big deal at all for him to fall on them if it turned out the Keith was down for that, really.

“Hi,” the pale Blade murmured and dang if he didn’t sound a little breathless.

“Wow...h-hello to you too,” Lance replied, helpless to stop goofy grin stretching his face. 

“It’s good to see you, Lance.”

“Yeah, I gathered.” Oh, they totally had their arms tight around each other, Keith’s around Lance’s neck in a way that made him feel 10 feet tall. Lance wanted to memorize this feeling and keep it with him on lonely Castle nights.

“And I didn’t get a beach assignment. I could only listen to you pine over sunburn and sand in your asscrack for so long before I figured out you wouldn’t mind going to the ocean. When I finished in the capital with Antok I came out here to meet you.”

Ok, Lance swore this would be the last deep kiss...and grope because hello, Keith’s butt was right there. 

RIGHT! THERE! 

The Blue Paladin couldn’t be faulted; the Blade actually listened to him and remembered stuff and met him at the beach because he knew Lance missed the ocean terribly.

“Have I said lately you’re pretty swell?” He winked at Keith, absolutely remembering the last time he said that. What a memory.

The Blade colored a little, but it could have been his translucent face actually getting some sun. 

“Whatever, you’re a cheap date,” Keith replied dipping out of the Blue Paladin’s arms with a smirk. “Last one in the water’s a rotten e- WHOA! LANCE! THAT’S CHEATING!”

The Blue Paladin left the Blade in his dust the moment Keith started that sentence, jumping down the rocks and streaking across the beach, a trail of blue and white armor hitting the sand in his wake.

After checking there weren’t any Reiphodians around who might get worked over mostly naked humans, Lance peeled out of his Paladin skinsuit and chucked it on the sand carelessly, down to his blue boxer briefs, before running straight into the water with a whoop. It took Keith an extra dobosh or two to strip down and join him, not quite as nimble in the water as the Blue Paladin.

When Lance hummed the Jaws theme and swam in circles around the Blade, Keith kept turning to keep a suspicious eye on him.

“If you dunk me I’m going to kick your ass,” the Blade threatened, but his smile undercut the seriousness of that threat.

“Would I do that?” the Blue Paladin inquired with a not-at-all convincing look of faux innocence.

The Blade’s response was to sink under the pink waves and disappear.

“...Keith?” The tanned teen turned in a circle, legs working as he tread water. “C’mon man, if you drown yourself to get away from me you’re gonna hurt my feelings.”

The sudden yank to his legs dragged the Blue Paladin under the surface with a garbled shout. Both teens surfaced tics later, Keith holding his prize.

Lance gave him a wry look as the Blade held up soaking wet blue underwear over his head with a victorious smirk.

“I don’t think we’ve met. Hi, Lance McClain, zero shame. Now you on the other hand-” The Blue Paladin swam quickly towards him.

“OH NO NO LANCE DON’T YOU FUCKING DO IT!” Keith hollered as he flung wet briefs into the Blue Paladin’s face before trying to backstroke out of reach.

The Blade managed to keep his underwear because Lance was not, in fact, a total jerk and let him escape, albeit with a few close calls because he was kinda in love with the way Keith freaked each time Lance’s fingers snagged in the waistband and threatened to abscond with his undies.

After a while they wound up on the sand under the shade of a weirdly spiky looking tree, the Blue Paladin once again, regretfully, back in his skivvies and leaning on his elbows as the Blade lay flat on his back, one arm cast over his eyes to block out the blinding sun.

“Thanks, man, this is really great,” the Blue Paladin said softly, eyes skimming over the water before they returned to land on the Blade lying next to him. 

“Uh-huh,” Keith grunted. 

“S’kinda sweet you thought of this.”

“Mm.”

“Not how I pictured my quintent going but this is way better.”

“Mhmm.”

“...I think I’m pregnant.”

“...the fuck, Lance?!” the Blade complained, whipping his arm away from his eyes only to start when he saw the Blue Paladin leaning over him.

“Just checking you were with me,” he chuckled down at the Blade. “Seriously, babe, thanks. You’re pretty not terrible at this boyfriend stuff.”

“...thank you?” Keith replied uncertainly, although the way his hand came up to sift into the Blue Paladin’s salt stiff hair felt quite sure. “Stop gushing, it’s gross. Maybe I wanted a beach day myself.”

“Pfft, right. I can practically hear your skin starting to sizzle, you pasty emo,” Lance murmured as he leaned in, his lips brushing the Blade’s lightly. “You did it because you like meeeee,” he sing-songed in the way he knew drove Keith a little nuts sometimes.

“Dunno why,” the Blade mocked even as the arm around Lance’s neck tightened. “Oh yeah, maybe it’s that good dick.” He laughed right in the Blue Paladin’s face when Lance spluttered.

“Heeeey, I’m trying to be all sensitive and junk so you don’t think I’m only after you for your body and here you are objectifying me,” the Blue Paladin whined before he dipped down to kiss Keith again. He totally didn’t mind being objectified; it was about time someone wised up to what a hot piece he was. But he never wanted Keith to feel that way.

“Hey...seriously, I’m not in this just for sex. You get that, right?”

“Yeah, I get that,” the Blade responded quietly. “Soooo...if I said I wouldn’t mind taking you up on that blowjob offer that wouldn’t make me a giant hypocrite, would it?”

Awwwww yisssssss. Lance gave a mental fist pump since his actual hands were full of slightly sunburned yet still unfairly attractive Keith Kogane.

“Oh, totally,” the Blue Paladin’s smile was huge and eager. “But you have a super hot boyfriend you can’t resist, so it’s perfectly understandable.” Yeah, so what if he was using the word boyfriend a dozen times, Keith had yet to refute it. Ergo, boyfriends they be!

They better be. Lance might be a little bit in love with the guy, so the least Keith could do was be his BF so the Blue Paladin didn’t feel like a tremendous loser.

“Just FYI, unlike you I don’t like getting my hair pulled, so be gentle,” he murmured as he quickly rolled over the Blade then wriggled down his body with a serpentine motion that had Keith squirming under him.

“Fine. Don’t take my underwear all the way off, I don’t want sand up my ass.”

“Dude, I know how to give a blowjob on the beach,” the Blue Paladin sassed as he pulled down the front just enough to get an eyeful. Yup, still a reaaaaaally nice package, his memory during multiple jerk sessions had not failed him.

Leave it to Keith to have an actually pretty dick. The nerve of him.

“Oh yeah? And exactly how many have you given?” The Blade lifted his head to look down, his face bright pink as he quickly glanced around to make sure they were still alone.

“Including you? One. Shut up,” the tanned teen snarked just before his tongue snaked out and the Blade was silenced in the most enjoyable way. Except for moaning the Blue Paladin’s name as calloused fingers carded through brown hair.

Vargas later they were in their respective ships and heading for the closest city to find a place to bunk down for the night since Keith’s Galra fighter was a one-man rig and Red, while roomy, had nothing but hard bulkheads to offer. Lance made a mental note to see if he could at least get a space sleeping bag and pillow in there or something, if the great cat allowed it.

They managed to squeeze in nearly 2 full quintents of exploring the planet, catching what they thought was the Reiphodian equivalent of a movie but turned out to be an some sort of demented, audience interactive experience they left them both coated in perfumed slime, and daring each other to eat progressively weirder looking alien foodstuffs.

And some pretty solid banging, if Lance did say so himself, once they found a mall that sold not just lube but a really fun one that left them both tingly in all the right places.

Turned out Keith had a thing for being held up against a wall, legs locked around the Blue Paladin’s waist. And Lance learned 69s were more complicated than he thought, since it was easy to get distracted and neglect your extremely talented boyfriend, but ultimately incredibly rewarding. Even if he fell asleep for a few doboshes after and woke up with Keith’s feet in his face.

The Blue Paladin was in unadulterated heaven. Space boyfriends for the win! 

Then Lance received a call from Allura to return to the Castle. They were needed on Taujeer’s moon to help resettle the inhabitants back on the planet’s surface, as its molting had finally finished. The Taujeerian ark still needed substantive repairs before it could fly without support, so the Lions’ assistance was requested.

Keith scowled at the news but nodded because this was the nature of their thing. Until the time was right for the Red Paladin to return to Voltron this was what they had, Lance reminded himself. 

It would have to be enough. It **had** to be.

“Don’t go getting yourself killed, okay?” Lance muttered as he pulled up Keith’s Blade hood while they lingered at the base of Red’s paws.

“Don’t you go flirting with hot aliens,” Keith mumbled back as his fingers fiddled with the Paladin’s belt pointlessly.

“You’re the only hot alien I want to flirt with, mullet,” the Blue Paladin teased, fingers toying with the ends of his dark hair. 

“Cool,” the Blade responded as he ducked his head.

Yeah, okay, Lance thought he could handle being bummed about leaving, even if he was the mushy one, the guy who wore his heart on his sleeve and couldn’t tough his way out of emotionally fraught situations with the ease Keith could. But nope.

“Aaaaaggggghhh, this sucks!” Lance groaned as he flung his head back dramatically. 

“Yeah, it does. But sometimes it doesn’t, so...we’ll just stick it out until I can come back home, okay?” The look Keith gave him was the kind the Blue Paladin had never seen on him, until recently. He really liked that look, as much as he hurt him too. 

It was wistful. Keith didn’t want them to part either.

The Blue Paladin was in over his head, and sometimes, like right now, he felt like he was drowning in the wash of feelings the Blade evoked in him. But he flowed with it, it was his nature. He knew Keith; he also knew that this...this thing they had? It was really good. Like big L-word good. 

He let that thought buoy him up.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay,” the tanned teen replied before he brought his head down to press alongside Keith’s as he gave him a firm, lingering hug. “Dang it, I thought you were the impulsive one. When did you turn into Mr. Patience?”

“Guess I figured out some things are worth waiting for.”

Holy crow, Keith was a serious hazard to his heart, it definitely missed half a dozen beats at that. 

“...shut your quiznak, I’m supposed to be the smooth one,” Lance said, his voice tight, his grip on Keith even tighter. 

 

*************************************************************************************

Keith had just left a debriefing with Kollivan when the pouch on his left hip hummed. His eyes widened as he fumbled for his new com device and nearly ran directly into Antok 

“Sorry!” he muttered as he quickly sidestepped, careful not to brush the Galra’s tail. Tapping his mask module off he hurried towards his berth, turning the translucent violet pad over a few times until he thought he had it rightside up.

“What the quiznak?” came a instantly recognizable voice, but no face to accompany it.

“Hang on! Damnit...how the hell do I…” the Blade exclaimed as he turned the pad around again, then flipped it over. “Ah ha!” 

“Keith!”

Oh shit, the Blade wasn’t all prepared for the bright smile that greeted him. Or the unabashedly pleased tenor to the Blue Paladin’s voice. 

Even though Keith hadn’t been able to think of a single reason why Lance wouldn’t mind the new communicator, some irrational part of of the Blade fretted that the Blue Paladin wouldn’t bother to call. He’d receive the cryptocom then stuff it in a drawer and go about his merry way Voltron-ing it up or whatever. 

The Blade knew that was illogical, unreasonable, considering how displeased the Paladin had been about his departure. But he guessed that was what letting someone in did to a Blade, twisted them into pointless knots of worry. 

“Yeah. Hey.” Hopefully none of those ridiculous, anxious thought showed on his face. He raked his hood back and his fingers through his hair, wondering how he looked, if he had hood head or anything as he explained, terribly, how their paired coms were supposed to work. 

Lance’s eyes, he was damn sure he remembered exactly how they looked, he’d spent a ridiculous amount of time all up in his personal spaces quintents ago, but for some reason they seemed even bluer than before.

“Hunk barely managed to get mine to Semfama on an Alliance transport before I left. I nearly missed the delivery, so it was a close call,” he continued. And he wasn’t sure why he was still talking. Maybe because Lance wasn’t? The Blade bought himself some time by detaching his hood and slipping off his blade in its sheath, but Lance still hadn’t said anything in response.

“...So...um...I asked him for these so...so we could talk,” he bumbled as Lance’s eyebrows start slowly rising up his smooth forehead. “Not all the time! I know you’re busy and right now I’m actually in the middle of the mission.” Oh fuck, why was he still talking? He sounded like clingy idiot. “I mean, I get it if you can’t pick up. Or maybe I can’t,” he flailed as he sat heavily on the hard edge of his bunk.

All he got in response was the Blue Paladin blinking owlishly at him from the small screen.

“You’re looking at me weird,” he grumbled, embarrassed. “And you’re not saying anything, which is even weirder.”

The Blue Paladin finally took sweet mercy on him. “Keith...this is **very** thoughtful. Thank you, babe.” 

Ah quiznak, Lance should have a license for that smile, it was absolutely lethal to the Blade’s mental well being when it bloomed across his face once more, and Keith let out all that stress over if the coms were a dumb idea with a whoosh as he flopped back on his bunk.

“S’not that big a deal,” he demurred. Lance called him _babe_. Something in Keith died entirely at that or maybe it was something entirely new sprouted, whatever it was his chest fucking hurt.

“Shut up and take the compliment, mullet. You’re just a big marshmallow who was dyyyyying to talk to meeeeee,” Lance sang with almost unbearable smugness. But he wasn’t wrong.

“No way! I regret it now, smash that pad!” the Blade huffed, even as Lance’s beguiling smirk teased one of out Keith.

“But if I smash your gift how are we going to have quantum entanglement sexting sessions?” the Blue Paladin pouted prettily.

“Th-that’s not why I got it!” 

Oh shit, maybe giving Lance the com was a bad idea, because that just put all sorts of horrible, amazing notions in the Blade’s head. Terrible temptations he really shouldn’t even consider since he was currently up to his neck in stoic Galra.

“That’s not a no on the sexting, babe,” the Blue Paladin crooned in a way that should not be nearly as enticing at it was. Keith was so fucked.

“I-I’m not doing this just to get you naked!” he protested. He really needed Lance to understand he was in this for way more than that. Sure, he wouldn’t turn down another fuck, no way, but he really just wanted to talk to Lance. Keep azure eyes and bright laughter in his life to fight back the colorless cold of living with the Blade of Marmora. “And I share a berth on rotation with two other Galra, so yeah, not happening.” He meant to sound stern but thought it came out a little regretful, despite his intention.

“Just pulling your blade, Keith, unclench!” Lance moved on his screen, seeming to lay down while holding the com over his face. The perspective took Keith back to panting over Lance, his hands pressed into sheets on either side of the Blue Paladin’s head, moaning how solid and thick he felt inside him.

“Seriously, it’s nice to see your stupid face.”

That snapped him out of the momentary fantasy and back to the present where Lance’s face wore a soft expression as black gloved fingers pushed his brown hair off his forehead. He looked sweaty. It was a nice look on him.

“What were you doing before you called? You look all sweaty and shit.”

“I’ll have you know I don’t sweat, I **glow** ,” Lance corrected him with a chuckle. “Pidge and Coran upgraded the arena gladiators to above Galra drones but still below Sendak maiming, so I’m pretty sure they’re not trying to kill me. Yet.”

Keith sprawled on his bunk for over a varga catching up with Lance. Really, it had only been seven quintents, and a few vargas, since they last saw each other, but it felt really important to the Blade to know how the Blue Paladin was doing. All of the Paladins of course, and he inquired after each one, but always turned it back to Lance. 

How long did he stay on Olkarion? Did he manage to get back to that club or play more soccer? Did he ever download any of that music?

Lance, in return, got Keith to admit he squeezed in a little side trip while on Semfama to check out the planet. Usually the Blade never had time when on mission or the inclination go to wandering. But he’d reminded himself that fuck the war, they were in **SPACE** , seeing and doing things no other human had ever experienced,. It was just stupid to take it for granted and not try to sightsee a little, when he could squeeze it in. 

“Semfama is such a weird planet, not even remotely round, more like a spike in orbit around a red star. But it’s tropical and there was a river that fed into the Zaiforge cannon’s cooling system. Ilun went fishing. She snatched fish from the river with her bare claws like a badass,” Keith relayed, pleased at Lance’s attentive expression as he listened.

The Blade wasn’t exactly sure when he’d ever talked so much about...well, nothing really. It was all bullshit little stuff, nothing really important or relevant to the war or Voltron or the Blade of Marmora. Actually, if he thought about it he didn’t really talk this much, in general. 

What if when they stopped talking...they had nothing more to say?

The call would end and who knew how long it would be before the next one.

Or if there would never be a next one. Anything could happen in war. 

Or Lance would wise up and realize Keith was too emotionally stunted for him and find himself a cute alien boy or girl to capture his attention.

No. No, Keith reminded himself, Lance wasn’t like that.

Something the Blue Paladin confirmed when their conversation wound down and Keith encouraged him to sleep. Instead Lance rolled on his side on his bed and blinked sleepily at the screen.

“Now you’re just staring,” the Blade noted.

“Shut up, you’ve got a nice face.” Keith bit his lip, he didn’t know if he should say anything to that. It was all incredibly foreign to him, feeling this way, hearing someone say such things about him.

“Too bad your hair sucks.”

Ok, THAT he couldn’t let slide. “You’re weren’t complaining about it the other night.” If he’d been Lance the Blade would’ve waggled his eyebrows, but he wasn’t so he just scowled at the screen instead. Christ, he’d been stunned at the jolt of pleasure Lance fisting his hair gave him. The Blue Paladin was teaching him all sorts of things.

“Nope. It’s a great handhold for when I raw you from behind.”

Keith choked then slapped his hand over his mouth because he was NOT going to let Lance know he was both shocked and kinda turned of by the blue eyed boy saying something so nasty with such a sweet smile on his face. He was almost relieved when Lance signed off after that, taking the last word with him.

The Blade realized pretty soon that while leaving sucked, it wasn’t nearly as awful as he’d expected. Although they were both really damn busy, the war raging on with Zarkon going on an utter rampage after his asshole son ruined the Naxzela plan to blow up the entire Alliance and Voltron with it. But they managed to stay in touch a lot more frequently than Keith had expected. Even if they couldn’t talk as often as he’d like, he’d come to rely on the little blips to the cryptocom to let him know Lance was alive and kicking. Sometimes, he’d double tap a blip back to let him know he’d received the message but couldn’t open a line at the moment.

When he was patiently, silently sitting through a Blade council meeting Keith would keep a hand in his pouch, trading blips of nonsense data back and forth with the Blue Paladin, neither opening a line to speak, tapping out unspoken messages only the other understood.

 _I’m here._

_I’m thinking about you._

If it wasn’t for constantly being on the move and worried about death and destruction, Keith would’ve said he was the happiest he’d been in a very long time.

Not to say it was perfect, hell no. 

Lance **loved** romantic comedies. The Blade made it very clear he would rather cram his luxite Blade in his eye than watch one with him. Sometimes, when the Blue Paladin had a particularly hard day, he would answer the com snippy and it would take a few doboshes of Keith giving Lance his best _are you done?_ look before the Blue Paladin finished airing all his grievances. Then Keith would simply say, “Now that’s out of your system, tell me what’s really eating you.”

Other times they killed vargas talking about the war, they had to, they both lived in it, it colored over every waking tic. Who else would Keith share his worries with? The Blade? Hardly. They were amazing allies, brothers-in-arms, but like most Galra they were hardly empathetic or welcoming of discussions regarding the emotional hardship of warfare.

“Ugh, and I can’t say any of this to Shiro! He’s got enough pressure on his shoulders. Honestly, Keith? I don’t think he’s handling so great. He's been acting weird,” Lance confided one quintent.

“He’s got PTSD, you know that Lance. He’s not perfect,” Keith reminded the Blue Paladin, feeling a little guilty to admit that aloud. He’d positively worshipped Shiro for so long, but all his time with Voltron Keith had finally learned that behind the almost brother he’d had on a pedestal there was a young man aged before his time, who carried the burden of the entire universe on his shoulders and wasn’t asking for help nearly as much as he used to. 

“Takashi being a bit of a control freak over little shit probably helps feel like he’s got a grip on a really unstable situation. Not saying it’s the right way to do it, but cut him some slack.”

“I knoooooooow,” Lance sighed. “I just need the reminder so I don’t get all butt hurt when he shuts me out of strategy discussions.”

“Allura’s pretty level headed, you should try talking to her about it too,” the Blade encouraged. 

“I’d rather talk to you.” The Blue Paladin propped another pillow behind his head. “Your advice isn’t entirely awful.”

“Thaaaaaanks.”

“Anytime, babe.”

Keith felt like he was adapting to this whole long-distance thing okay. Except each time they hung up he’d remember another quintent passed, and he still wasn’t back with Voltron, with Lance. Sometimes he spent vargas in the training facilities, grappling with much larger Galra, sparring, getting knocked around not quite as much as he used to, so he could sleep without spending the night sulking that he was cold, and Lance was warm and light years away.

Thirty-two quintents. It was nothing in the grand scale of things, but it felt interminable to the Blade sometimes.

“Heeeey, babe,” the Blue Paladin greeted as he slouched in Red’s cockpit. Keith squinted at the screen, trying to determine if Lance was just beat or was actually wounded in any way. He’d clearly just come off a battle.

“Wow, you look like shit.” Crap, not exactly what he meant to say, but there it was. 

“Yeah? You look like hot garbage too.” It couldn’t be too bad if Lance still had a sense of humor working.

“Thanks. What the hell have you been doing to get so wrecked?”

Turned out they’d both been running their asses ragged on Lotor’s milk run missions. Both Voltron and the Blade of Marmora had taken out some pretty key installations, crippling supply lines and drone manufacturing facilities, but it had all been a little too easy to sit well with Keith. 

"Well, J’lazim’s 100% Galra free now, so we got that going for us,” Lance summed up with a sigh as he appeared to be trying his best to melt into Red’s pilot seat

J’lazim, that sounded so familiar. The Blade’s fingers darted out to flit over the interface panel in his fighter. “That’s the Xaxos sector, right?”

“Yuuuuuup,” the Blue Paladin drawled as he knocked his head back in his seat, looking beat.

“I’m on Reiphod.” Only 2 sectors away! Okay, that might sound far if you’d never left planet Earth in a magical cat robot or flew a quintessence powered ship, but it was practically next door!

“Mm cool cool. Think we did a Voltron show there once. Nice place, very clean,” the Blue Paladin sighed as he rubbed his face.

“Lance, I’m on Reiphod. **Right now** ,” Keith stated emphatically. He gave it a couple of tics, then smirked as he practically saw the light bulb go off over the Blue Paladin’s pretty head.

“Whoa!” Lance snapped upright as though electrocuted and immediately he was in motion, turning in Red’s cockpit to pull up displays. “I can be there in 4 vargas! Unless Allura’s feeling generous and lets me wormhole! That was you asking me to swing by, right?” He swung his face back to Keith’s screen, the eyes that had been nearly sliding shut from weariness now wide and hopeful.

“Yes, that was me asking,” Keith laughed. Ok, so maybe he hadn’t actually asked, but Lance got the picture, so that was all that mattered. “We haven’t been within a few dozen sectors of each other since-”

“Olkarion, yeah I know.” 

“So?”

“Coordinating this booty call as we speak! Lemme shoot Shiro a message.”

“Lance, this isn’t a booty call!” Keith protested, partially because he really hoped Lance wouldn’t actually call it that when asking the Black Paladin to let him slip away for a bit. But mostly because he didn’t want the Blue Paladin to think that was the only reason he suggested they meet up. 

Don't get him wrong, he definitely planned on riding that dick. But, more than anything he just wanted to see Lance.

The Blue Paladin smirked at him and threw a wink as he speedily tapped out something on Red’s interface.

“Is that all you think about…” The Blade paused. “Wait...am I YOUR booty call??” Lance did bring up fucking a lot, nearly all their conversations laced with innuendo or thinly veiled reminders of what they did that one night. 

Lance paused in his tapping and favored the Blade with an annoyed scowl. “What?! No! Jesus, I am completely insulted you think that! You think I’m that shallow?” The Blue Paladin crossed his arms over his chest plate and nailed Keith with a very wounded look.

“I-I don’t think you’re shallow!” Keith stammered. “But you bring it up a lot!” 

Shit, he thought he had gotten past this instinct to flare up in opposition to things Lance said, especially when they might needle him, poke at his sorest spots. 

“Hey, the sex was awesome, of course I’d like an encore,” the Blue Paladin replied huffily. “But would I pester you to tell me about growing up, or ask for details about you did after you left the Garrison or drag out of you all the stuff that upset you about the Plaxian raid if all I cared about was your body?”

That made the Blade feel very small.

“I...I didn’t mean…” To hurt Lance’s feelings, definitely not. To reveal how hopelessly hung up on the boy he was that the idea he was just a piece of ass to the Blue Paladin was agonizing? To show he was an insensitive asshole? Seemed he’d managed to accomplish all three in record time. 

“I don’t want to fight.” 

I’m sorry, another one of those words he knew he should say to the tanned teen, but it hung up on his tongue. Like so many other things he hadn’t figured out how or when to say.

“Good, me either. I will forgive baseless insinuations,” the Blue Paladin said loftily, his expression morphing from an irritated pout to a smarmy grin in two tics. “If you let me suck you off when I get there in four vargas because I am ON MY WAY!” Lance positively crowed. “Hey, Red! Wanna go see Keith? WHOA! Guess she does. We just broke orbit, and I didn’t even touch the stick.” 

Keith blinked, a little stunned at the speedy turn of Lance’s mood, then the realization they went from nearly having a fight to the Blue Paladin practically threatening to blow him as soon as he landed.

“O-okay? See you in a few vargas?” The Blade felt a little winded from the rapid fire, tumultuous exchange, although Lance shooting those stupid finger guns at him right before signing off made him feel a little less sick about it.

He felt like a total ass. He KNEW Lance wasn’t like that. Sure, he’d had the whole ladies’ man, wannabe playboy thing going for a while, but he’d mellowed over time. The Blue Paladin might be boisterous and flirty, but he never acted like he didn’t care about Keith as a person, as a Paladin, a Blade, a half-Galra orphan.

Lance had done all those things he’d said, asked Keith about his life before the Garrison, before Voltron and space and war and magic.

About his dad and his life with Keith, rather than his death. About Shiro and how it had been before the Blade's world fell apart once more when he believed the second man he’d loved, idolized, and relied on had died. About living alone, utterly isolated in the desert, and why it felt safer to him than the Garrison, than being with people.

The Blue Paladin had peered at Keith from a small screen, chin propped in his hand as he listened, then asked for more.

What was wrong with Lance talking about the sex? Nothing! Really, besides giving the Blade spank bank material that he couldn’t do anything about living on a Galra base in close quarters, it had created a different sort of intimacy for them, beyond the physical. 

Once that last last barrier between him and Lance was removed, the tanned teen had wriggled his way into Keith’s life, filling in the cracks. He’d gently teased out the painful things within the Blade he’d tried to keep in the dark, coaxed them out into the light where the Blue Paladin turned them over in careful hands, never once breaking the trust Keith had given him along with those secrets.

About his dad taking him to the Grand Canyon once; they rafted down the Colorado for three days during the low season. It had been just the two of them on the river nearly the whole way, camping at night on small sandy beaches, cooking hot dogs and marshmallows until they were charred. 

Nothing had tasted better in the whole wide world to an 8 year old. 

Lance had a way of extracting things from Keith he’d never intended to reveal, seemingly without effort. And he’d never made the Blade regret it.

It wasn’t Lance’s fault Keith had abandonment issues, so he shouldn’t be pushing his insecurities in that regard onto the Paladin.

So...the Blade now faced a choice. It was an easy one. He didn’t want to be scared of Lance, of what he felt for the Blue Paladin, what the tanned teen meant to him. Keith been afraid, angry for so long, and with Lance he wasn’t. The Blue Paladin had done nothing to merit that, not for a really long time. Lance made Keith feel…

He made him **_feel_**.

The Blade knew he couldn’t give voice to this jumble of thoughts and stunted emotions, not without making the Blue Paladin look at him like he was a little nuts. And maybe he was.

But he could **show** him.

When Lance waltzed down Red’s jaw ramp the Blade felt like some sort of pressure he didn’t even realize was there eased in his chest, let him breathe a little easier. Lance was alive. He was here.

“Beach assignment, huh? Nice. Think it’s too late for me to do the trials and join up the Blade of Marmora?” Lance’s eyes were as bright as the sun overhead, and Keith was equally dazzled by both.

“You’re not meant to go through that door.” He shoved off his fighter and stalked towards the Blue Paladin, intent on making him understand that even though the Blade had been a little prickly about the sex jokes, his insecurity leaking through, he wasn’t at all opposed to getting all tied up in the tanned teen’s embrace. Right now.

He needed it. So he didn’t bother with soft or sweet, there’d be time for that later. It had been 32 plus long quintents since he’d touched Lance. Dark gloved fingers looped around his neck quickly and hauled the Blue Paladin in as the Blade turned the kiss dirty instantly.

Keith groaned at the first touch, then the second, the third, clenching tighter until chest plates clanked and the Blue Paladin made a plaintive noise just as his hands slid down to grab Keith’s ass.

The Blade wrenched his face away before he gave in to the deep temptation to drag Lance down onto the rocky ground, fuck the bruises they’d get. 

He never thought a kiss could actually render him breathless, but there he was, practically panting. “H-hi.”

“Wow, and hello to you too,” the Blue Paladin responded quietly, looking a little windswept at the way Keith had practically tackled him. It was a good look. 

“It’s good to see you.” One of the larger understatements of Keith’s lifetime.

“Yeah, I got that.” 

“And this isn’t a beach assignment. I could only listen to you bitch fondly about sunburn and sand in your ass before I figured out you wouldn’t mind seeing the ocean.” Keith would never been the smooth talker Lance was, sometimes things leaked out of him that were snarky or impolite, but if anything that seemed to always amuse the Blue Paladin or prompt him to answer back with equal sass, which Keith enjoyed. “So when I finished the mission in the city I bailed on Antok and came out here to meet you.”

Lance stared at him for a long few tics, and Keith momentarily wondered if he’d, somehow, gotten it all completely wrong. No, **no**. Lance loved the beach, he missed it, he missed rain and storms, and splashing in puddles like a dorky kid and sandcastles and all that other stuff Keith had never paid much attention before.

Then he got a firm double handful of the Blade’s ass and hauled Keith, embarrassingly, up onto his tip-toes and flattened him with a kiss just as heated as the one the Blade greeted him with.

“Have I said lately you’re really swell?”

Fucking Lance McClain, Keith thought to himself, the guy was seriously detrimental to his mental health because no one should have ever been able to make the closed off, reserved Blade such a fucking sap.

“...whatever. It’s a cheap date,” he demurred, ducking out of the Blue Paladin’s embrace before he did something spontaneous and badly planned, like blurted out he was fucking crazy about him or rip his armor off and let him go in dry. “Last in the water’s a rot-LANCE! YOU FUCKING CHEATER!” he shouted as the Blue Paladin jammed his helmet into the Blade’s stomach to knock him off balance, then darted past him to leap down the rocks and make a mad dash for the water, flinging off his armor and suit with a speed that would have really pissed off Allura.

The Blade followed, chuckling at the way Lance flung himself with absolute abandon into the pink surf. He slithered out of his Blade uniform as he admired the Blue Paladin easily swimming, ducking under waves, surfacing then diving again, sleek and swift in the water in a way Keith would never be able to emulate.

After a friendly snatching of Lance’s underwear, followed by a less than friendly attempt to steal Keith’s, which had him dashing water into the Blue Paladin’s face repeatedly in an effort to keep from going commando in a strange ocean, the Blade finally relaxed. He wasn’t the most graceful swimmer, but he could get around and not drown. And keep both of them in the water steady when the long limbed teen's legs latched around Keith’s waist as he worked damp fingers into the Blade’s tangled hair while they made out in the surf.

Later, when Keith started to feel a little toasty they collapsed, under the shade of a rather menacing looking orange tree, warm sand at their backs. Keith could fall asleep here, even though he figured he’d wake up practically purple and peeling, he was feeling too relaxed to move, more than happy to lay there and listen to Lance murmur, feel his salt sticky skin brush against his once in a while. 

“-think I’m pregnant.”

“What the fuck, Lance,” Keith groaned, opening his eyes to find the pretty Paladin leaning over him. 

“Just checking. Seriously, thanks for this, babe. You’re pretty not terrible at the boyfriend stuff,” 

Keith felt his skin warm further than what could easily be blamed on the blinding sun. If he got this flustered when Lance gave him backhanded compliments, he was pretty sure he’d horribly embarrass himself if the gorgeous Paladin ever hit him with sincere praise. Also...boyfriends? Hell yeah.

“Thank you?” He pushed his fingers into Lance’s salt spiked hair, marvelling at how the guy had already started to tan more in such a short time, his skin a deeper caramel than before. The Blade knew he’d be able to taste sunlight on his skin when he licked over it later. “Stop gushing, it’s gross. Maybe I wanted a beach day myself.”

Seriously, Lance couldn’t just say that sort of shit to him. He didn’t know how to handle it except to say something snarky back so he didn’t just fucking spill that he was stupidly in love with the asshole and they hadn’t even been dating or fucking or whatever a whole Earth-equivalent month. 

That didn’t factor in the ages Keith spent slowly, helplessly falling for him before they ever touched.

"Riiiiiight. You pasty emo, I can hear your skin sizzling. You did to because you liiiiiiiiike meeeeee,” Lance sang at him, and fuck the guy for stating the obvious in a way Keith couldn’t deny. Thankfully, he did it with a joke, which made dealing with the truth that Keith was a damn marshmallow when it came to Lance easier to stomach.

“Must be that good dick,” he grinned as he slipped his arm around the Blue Paladin’s neck to pull him down as the tanned teen choked on an outraged gasp, then teased Keith for objectifying his incredibly hot ass before they both tossed the teasing out the window, and Lance delivered on that blowjob he’d threatened earlier.

Keith was completely dizzy after, and it wasn’t heat stroke. Lance really didn’t have a gag reflex.

The next two quintents were a blissful blur to the Blade, nights tangled up in each other in a space hotel that comped them a decent room the moment the proprietor recognized Lance’s distinctive armor. He also asked the Blue Paladin to sign a Voltron on Ice poster “for my daughter”, but Keith could have sworn he saw it hanging up behind the counter as they passed the next day.

Keith learned a lot in those two quintents.

A) Never go to an alien movie theater without researching first.

B) Don’t be afraid to try weird alien food when you’ve eaten nothing but Galra rations for months.

C) He **really** liked it when Lance picked him up and crushed him against the wall while pile-driving his cock into him.

D) The Blue Paladin, as amazing as he was in the sack, wasn’t the most skilled multi tasker when both dick and mouth were involved.

E) Keith wanted to go back with him very very badly.

When the inevitable call came and Allura ordered the Blue Paladin to Taujeer to assist in the resettlement effort, they lingered at the base of the great cat, both unwilling to part just yet.

“Don’t go getting yourself killed, okay?” Warm fingers brushed the sunburned plane of the Blade’s cheek as he pulled up his hood. Keith tipped his face into that touch. He was right, Lance had tasted of sunshine.

“Don’t you go flirting with any hot aliens,” he reminded the Blue Paladin, fingers snagging on his belt to tug him just that bit closer, needing to stay in the orbit of Lance's presence a few tics longer.

“Keith...you’re the only hot alien I wanna flirt with.”

Shit, no no no. Lance couldn’t say crap like that to him! Not when they were getting ready to split to opposite sides of the universe again. 

Damnit, Keith had had so many chances to just **SAY IT** to him the last two quintents, but every time he thought about it the words stuck in his throat. He knew Lance cared about him, was crazy about the sex, enjoyed spending time with him. 

But love? 

The Blade simply didn’t know. He couldn’t risk it, throw it out there to have it hang in the air between then, possibly unanswered. 

He might be willing to risk his life, but his heart? He couldn’t, not when there was so much distance and uncertainty involved. Every day they both made it was a gift; every time they connected, saw the other was unharmed, thriving, changing the whole universe, was a miracle.

The Blade didn’t want it to end just because maybe Keith was in this deeper than Lance. Because he knew if he said it, told Lance how he felt and the Blue Paladin didn’t feel the same, even if his affection ran deep and warm...Keith didn’t have any coping mechanisms besides violence and anger. He could never do that to Lance, so that left only one direction they’d turn.

He was so tired of hurting, so why chance it?

He was happy, **they** were happy right now, even if the long distance thing was a challenge. Why fuck it up with three little words?

“Ahhhhh, this sucks!” Lance exclaimed, and the Blade’s fingers slid around his waist as his head knocked into an armored blue shoulder. 

“Sometimes it doesn’t...so we…”Keith swallowed, not daring to look into azure eyes again or he’d lose his resolve and his tongue would become an undisciplined thing and damn him. “We’ll stick it out until I can come home.” 

_Home to you._

_When we have time for you to, maybe, learn to love me back._

The Blue Paladin sighed, a long suss of breath that stirred the hair at the Blade’s temple as long arms wound around him, kept him close. “Yeah, okay. Darnit, Keith, I thought you were the impulsive one. When did you get so patient?”

He turned his head, nose skimming the warm, smooth plane of Lance’s cheek; he caught the scent of sunshine and sand and days so bright he knew the memory of them would blind him to the affections of anyone else for the rest of his life. 

“I figured out some things are worth waiting for.”

He felt the Blue Paladin slump into him, fingers digging into grey fabric, bunching it at his back. “S-shut your quiznak. I’m supposed to be the smooth one.”

Keith hoped the tremulous note in Lance’s voice, the way his his breath hitched in the Blade’s ear, meant maybe he didn’t have to wait too long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week will be the final chapter and it'll involve a time skip to season 6 because Voltron can't give me BEEF KEEF without expecting me to write something about it!
> 
> Also, OMG SEASON 7 IN LESS THAN A MONTH, WE ARE TOO BLESSED.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaand it's done. Brace yourself for over 18,000 words of feels, smut, all that jazz.
> 
> I had a native Spanish speaking friend do the translation for me, but she's not Cubano so I'm very sorry if I got some of the slang wrong!
> 
> PLEASE NOTE: This chapter is not like the others, in that this chapter will switch between Keith then Lance's viewpoints repeatedly. I did this very deliberately as I didn't want you to already know the outcome of the chapter from one POV before you ever learned the other character's thoughts. The final plotting of the story will be told by both of them as it progresses, so things will be revealed to you at the same time they are to Keith and Lance. I just hope it works!
> 
> As usual POV switches will be marked by ************* between them. 
> 
> I banged out this last chapter in just a few days and only finished it tonight, so bear with me on any typos, I really wanted to get it out tonight and always catch errors after posting. I will go back and fix them later.
> 
> P.S. Obviously going to ignore all that Shallura VLD tried to cram down my throat in S6. Can't wait for S7 in a few weeks!!!

Things were good, as good as they could be given the constant stress they were under. Some days the Blade felt like the only thing that didn’t keep him from sliding into a dark corner of the base to have brief, quiet mental breakdown was the knowledge that the next time he and Lance spoke this suffocating feeling in his chest would ease for a little while. 

Just the subtle vibration of the cryptocom in his pocket once in a while was enough to get him to unclench his fists a little, stop grinding his teeth for a few doboshes.

As much as a relief as it was to see his face, hear his voice, increasingly the content of their talks worried him. Not about Lance, he remained as steadfast and obnoxiously, cutely flirtatious as he’d always been. But what was going on around him had the Blade anxious.

Sure, Zarkon was dead, but with that giant asshole they knew what they were dealing with. Things were different, uncertain, with Lotor in charge and both Voltron and the Blade of Marmora were skeptical, eyeing the tentative peace with wary gazes.

“He gave Lotor his bayard, Keith! HIS. BAYARD. AGAIN!” Lance ground out in a frustrated, hushed tone, curled into the corner of his bunk, a pillow crammed under his head and his nose practically pressed to the little purple communicator.

“I saw,” Keith scowled. “I mean, I get the reasoning behind it all, the devil we know versus the devil we don’t. And Sendak. But yeah, it doesn’t sit right with me either.”

“I’m just glad you made it out okay. When I saw the monument explode I think I threw up a little in my mouth,” Lance muttered.

“Sorry, the Kral Zera happened so fast I didn’t even know what was going on until six vargas prior. I never expected Shiro to show up with that dickface.” Keith pulled his knees up to his chest and knuckled his eyes, exhausted. 

“Hey, quit trying to take blame, everything’s apples and bananas right now so we all have to roll with the punches,” Lance’s dour expression contradicted the soothing tone of his voice. “Lotor’s on the throne now, so things should settle down...right?” Equally bleary blue eyes peered back at him. The Blue Paladin looked as exhausted as the Blade felt, and Keith would’ve given anything in the universe to reach through the com and drag Lance into a hug. He looked like he really needed it.

The Blade sighed, “I don’t know, Lance. I still say we can’t trust him. Be careful around him.”

“I will, babe. Don’t worry,” the Blue Paladin murmured. “Now lay down, that way I can pretend you’re stealing the covers and kicking me.”

“That was one time,” the Blade protested, but he did as he was told and flopped onto his hard bunk, rolling onto his side and blinking tiredly at the small image of the Blue Paladin in the palm of his hand. 

“I can’t believe we missed each other on Zythlm by a few vargas,” Lance groaned. As much as Keith liked the knowledge that Lance missed him, it hurt the Blade to see how morose the tanned teen was whenever Voltron and the Blade flew past each other, darting from one side of the universe to the other in an effort to stitch back together the wreckage left behind by war.

The Blade watched the pout on the Blue Paladin’s face. The guy was way too old to be pulling a expression like that, but it was deadly effective at making Keith ache. “Yeah, when I heard you guys were there I was already several systems away. I might’ve taken it out on Zual in training.”

“Awww, you beat up one of your teammates for me? And who says romance is dead?” Lance teased and Keith chuckled.

“Hey, I actually managed to pin him, which is not easy, so be impressed. S’not like I can get you flowers.”

“...would you get me flowers?” Blue eyes peered at him from the small screen and the Blade thought of forget-me-nots.

“Hell no.”

“Aaaagh, nevermind, romance really is dead.”

“What if I got you garlic knots?”

“IT LIVES!!” Lance cheered.

Seemed like the only time Keith smiled anymore was when they talked. Sometimes it stunned him how far they’d come. Lance had been the biggest thorn in his side when they met, now his absence felt like a wound, something that drained the Blade’s former steely determination and replaced with a desperation, clutching frantically at something just out of reach. 

It had been sixty seven quintents since he’d last seen him face to face.

Sixty eight now, Keith realized as he eyed the time then debated if he’d be more of less exhausted if he squeezed in a 15 dobosh power nap before reporting for scout duty. Not wanting to be late, because he would be working alongside Kollivan, he decided to a skip it and hope something exciting, but preferably not deadly, happened because a good old fashioned adrenalin rush would help wake him up.

He’d didn’t expect it to come in the form of his commander stating, “Your recent performance in the field has been below your usual standard, Keith.” The young Blade sucked in a quiet gasp at the stinging reprimand from out of nowhere. “You should submit a request for mating leave soon, as your combat readiness is questionable at this time.” 

It was only the fact that they were already space walking along the side of an abandoned, half destroyed hulk of a Galra freighter that Keith didn’t fling himself out an airlock.

The inarticulate choking noise he made was easily interpreted by the huge, stoic Galra as he peered into one of the corridors exposed to open space then floated in to check if any weapons or salvageable equipment survived the craft’s destruction. 

“Kits are not chagrined by this topic,” the commander noted with a subtle tinge of disapproval. “It is part of being Galra.”

“I’m not a kit!” Keith might be invested in learning more about his Galra heritage but he loathed the term for Galra young; it made him sound like a pet. “I’m half-human and we don’t….don’t…” He couldn’t bring himself to say the word “mate”, it sounded so primitive.

Actually, did Galra have customs regarding dating and things like that? It wasn’t exactly the sort of topic Keith had considered before, much less asked any of the Blades about. Wait...did they do something _different_ when it came to fucking? 

Holy shit, did Galra have different junk? What if his dick changed and shit got weird?!

Keith’s mind was suddenly full of all sorts of horrible questions he wished had never occurred to him, and he briefly hated Kollivan with a burning intensity for bringing the topic up.

Then again, when else would he have an opportunity to ask? 

Nevermind, Keith decided he would rather remove his mask and have his eyeballs implode in the vacuum of space before he asked his commanding officer about their shared species’ sexual customs.

“Uh…” Oh, shit, guess he was about to do just that. “I’m not really...informed on Galra protocols regarding…” The Blade cringed. “...m-mating.”

Sendak, kill him now.

The large Blade commander looked up from the console he was coaxing to life, and it felt like a deca-phoebe passed as his blank mask remained fixed on Keith. Even though he couldn’t see Kollivan’s face Keith vividly imagined it was more frowny than usual.

“When we return to base you will be given access Galran biology and physiology materials. You are a little old for remedial lessons usually provided to immature kits but, due to your unique status, it is probably for the best.” With that the commander returned to the flickering screen before intoning, “The manifest indicates this ship was transporting components for a new type of ion cannon.”

Breathing a sigh of relief at the abrupt subject change, and beyond grateful his mask hid how red his face probably was, Keith seized on the topic. “We should check the cargo level, see if any of the transport pods are still intact.”

Vargas later Keith crawled into a maintenance conduit, the most private place he’d found on base, opened up the file on his data pad, and immediately realized he should NEVER share any of this with Lance. His boyfriend would make furry jokes until the day he died.

A couple of the diagrams made Keith tilt his head, then the data pad this way then that, uncertain if he was looking at it correctly. After devouring everything on the pad Keith determined a couple of things. 

Thank fuck he was male because it sounded like being a girl Galra was a nightmare; he was now moderately petrified of the female Blades. 

Dicks were pretty common across bipedal mammalian species universe wide, and he’d not inherited the Galra tendency for intimidating girth. It was one thing to be big enough to be undeservedly proud, like Lance, then there was the ridiculousness of pure breed Galra cock. No thanks.

He could now officially blame his enjoyment of biting on his Galra half. Of course, it was just as likely he had a run-of-the-mill human kink, but he liked the idea of freaking Lance out with the information.

Galra were already pretty savage as a race, even the collected and tempered Blade could be vicious when backed into a corner. Being denied “access” to mating was a recipe for mutiny and copious bloodshed; the urge in mature Galra could be strong, to say the least. At least one major civil insurrection had risen up over the topic, so they took it seriously.

Galra were neither prudish nor promiscuous, they simply acknowledged their race had a strong biological imperative for sex and reproduction and the military-industrial complex that was the backbone of the Galra empire accommodated it in the most incredibly clinical and boring sounding way possible.

Keith liked to think he had a very human, non-bloodthirsty relationship with sex, but it wasn’t like he was going to turn down a chance for the Blade equivalent of paid days off to get fucked.

Like nearly all things related to keeping a militaristic empire running, there was a chain of command and permissions to be granted.

Now, he just needed to fill out _documentation_ and he might get approval for several quintents’ leave. He couldn’t believe the Galra had booty call paperwork.

Lance was going to have a field day with this information.

He wasn’t wrong, as Keith called him immediately. His boyfriend positively crowed at the news, then dragged Hunk over and made Keith repeat what he just said. He did it through gritted teeth only because he was crazy about the dumbass, and Hunk had become something of the resident Galra scholar on Team Voltron.

“Their culture is _fascinating_ ,” the Yellow Paladin commented. “I wonder what other mortifying invasions of privacy the Galra require a paper trail for.”

“Laugh it up, you’re not the ones who have to fill it out. Some of this is embarrassingly detailed.”

“Oooh, storytime! Bye Hunk!” the Blue Paladin snickered as he planted a hand on his friend’s face and pushed him away before scooting out of the kitchen, heading for his room for privacy. “Read me the juicy bits, babe, I have to know.”

It was only the reminder Lance wasn’t laughing at him but cringing with him over Galran bureaucracy that got Keith through reading the form in a paranoid whisper as he kept looking over his shoulder like a tech would come crawling down the empty conduit anytime.

“Glad you’re more human than Galra, babe, because WOW,” Lance snickered, “I’ll never to be able to look Kollivan in the face again without picturing that anatomy diagram.”

“I know,” Keith moaned, covering his face with his hand as though he could shut out the image. 

Lance whispered, in an awed voice, “Also, now completely terrified of Galra ladies. They’re like praying mantis, except 8 palmacs tall and fuzzy. Watch your cute booty around Ilun!”

“Ugh, Lance, don’t put that image in my head! She’s my shift commander, and I have to work with her in a couple of vargas!”

“The section on half breeds didn’t sounds so bad,” the Blue Paladin soothed. “If you were gonna present any Galran traits sounds like you would’ve by now. Looks like you’re stuck being a human sexy shorty, you poor thing.” Lance made a kissy noise at the screen that had the Blade covering his face again so the Blue Paladin didn’t crow about his blush.

“Would you kill me if I called you kitten?”

“Don’t,” the Blade warned with a deadly tone.

“Awwwww,” the blue Paladin sulked obviously. “You’re no fun.”

The Blade grumbled, he couldn’t believe he had to admit it, but if it would head off any further ridiculous pet names he’d do it. “I don’t mind when you call me babe. Leave it at that.”

“Knew I’d win you over!.”

“Don’t go getting a big head about it.”

“Thought you loved my _big head_ ,” the Blue Paladin responded with zero subtlety.

“Sex puns. Really,” the Blade deadpanned.

“C’moooooon, all this talk about doing the do, Galra style…”

“You are not seriously telling me you are turned on right now!” Keith couldn’t believe it.

“Maaaaaybe, but it’s mostly because you’re blushing and that’s so hot,” the Blue Paladin defended. “C’mon, I need something, Keith! At this point I’ll settle for a glimpse of a bare shoulder, I’m that pathetic.”

“That is pathetic,” the Blade agreed, but he was in an out of the way maintenance conduit; he didn’t exactly have to worry his berth mates were going to show up for their sleep shift and interrupt. Then again, he was in a **maintenance conduit** and that was just awkward. 

Decisions decisions.

“...You first.”

“Wait! For real?!” 

“Anytime, Mr. Exhibitionist,” the Blade replied dryly, propping his chin in his hand and giving the screen an arch look. The Blue Paladin gaped at him before a devilish smirk slid onto his face.

“Alright then! Wait just a tic!” Lance fiddled with his com to set it upright somewhere, probably his desk based on the angle. “Don’t go anywhere!” he called as he waved then disappeared off screen.

“Not like I got anywhere else to be,” Keith responded, holding the com closer to his nose for a better look. A dobosh later Lance reappeared. “Did you seriously change clothes?” Gone were the faded jeans and soft hoodie, Lance once again in his black Paladin skin suit, sans armor.

“What? Don’t you think it looks nice on me?” the Blue Paladin drawled as he leaned down towards the com to give the Blade a wink before he stood back up, slim fingers slowly dragging up his long legs, over narrow hips to sweep inward then fan up his chest.

The Blade dryly swallowed, suddenly wishing he’d thought to bring a drink pouch into his hidey-hole. ”Fuck.”

“Oh, I wish,” Lance said with that exact same tone in his voice he used when he was murmuring dirty compliments in Keith’s ear as he pounded into him. All the while those long, tan fingers trailed up, up until they slid along either side of the Blue Paladin’s pretty face then into his hair before they sailed over his head, putting his long, lean torso on display. “Miss you, babe. Miss you touching me.”

“Y-yeah?” Oh holy quiznak, Lance had always been a good looking guy, but when he did stuff like this, unexpected, shocking shit, Keith was convinced he was dating the hottest smokeshow in the galaxy. Also the most shameless. He was one lucky half-alien.

“Yuuuuup,” Lance popped his lips on the word and his hands wove their way back down and broke the seal on his suit, slowly easing it open until a tantalizing V of caramel skin peeked through. 

“Promise you’re gonna leave hickeys riiiiiiight here next time you see me,” Lance murmured as his hips swung slowly from side to side, Keith’s eyes tracking them like a laser sight, and his index finger drew an invisible line down his chest, his stomach, circled his navel.

“This is such a terrible idea,” Keith breathed, holding the pad practically to his nose like he could fall right through it and into the Blue Paladin’s room.

“I’ve hardly done anything yet,” the Blue Paladin chuckled darkly as his shoulders rolled and inky material began to slip down his arms, inch by tantalizing inch. 

Keith was right, it had been a really terrible idea. A terrible, awful, awesome idea, but mostly terrible because he had to watch Lance strip for him and somehow manage to make jerking off look sensual and smooth instead of awkward, like Keith probably did when he frantically shoved his Blade suit down to past his hips and bit out the Blue Paladin’s name like a curse and prayer in one.

Either Lance had incredibly low standards, he was that horny, or maybe he actually did find the inelegant and desperate picture Keith made attractive somehow. Either way they both felt better after blowing off some steam, although Keith’s relief was tainted by his eyes landing on the data pad containing his leave forms and the knowledge he’d have to ask the Blade leadership to give him time off for a “lay-cation”, as Lance had taken to calling it.

His boyfriend was so fucking corny and gross. Keith hated it almost as much as he loved it.

******************************************************************************************************

“D’ya hear that, babe? Allura said there’s greatness in me,” Lance smirked at the screen as Keith’s fighter landed on the swap moon. He was impatiently waiting for delivery of one hot half-Galra, half human, all sexy boyfriend after seventy four quintents. He might also already be naked.

It never hurt to be expedient when you were on the clock!

“I’d rather get that greatness in **me** ,” the Blade replied as he hurriedly released his restraints then practically vaulted out of his pilot seat.

“Oh my gosh, you made a dirty joke! I am so proud,” the Blue Paladin pretended to wipe a tear from his eye as he watched Keith’s image spin before he heard a clatter as the Blade dropped his com. “Okay, butterfingers, I’m hanging up before you hurt yourself. Room...uh...there aren’t any numbers I can read. Just go to the third third floor, sixth door on the left with a symbol on it that looks like a dude on a skateboard. Sort of.”

Lance still wasn’t sure he was fully recovered from the hernia he nearly caught laughing when Keith, red faced, explained he had to submit a form to his Blade’s superiors to get a couple quintents off to meet up for “non-reproductive mating.” Apparently the Galra were even more shameless than the Blue Paladin. But, hey, whatever worked!

“Galra mating protocols,” Lotor had drawled when he overheard Lance cackling about it with Pidge, the Green Paladin looking mortified and amused at once. “Speaks volumes for the race that any intimacy or spontaneity is so clinically regulated, doesn’t it?”

Lance narrowed his gaze at the Prince, Emperor, whatever. The guy might be ruling the empire right now and, as such, had taken a lot of heat off Voltron, and let them all have free reign of his citadel but the Blue Paladin still didn’t trust the guy as far as he could throw him. 

He especially longed to launch Lotor out an airlock without a helmet every time he saw him eyeballing Princess Allura with a look that made Lance’s lecherous stares at Keith look positively virginal.

“Butting into private conversations speaks volumes about you,” the Blue Paladin drawled right back, imitating the Prince’s snooty accent near perfectly. “Thought your nanny taught you better manners.” Pidge smothered her laugh with a cough, eyes darting between the Paladin and Prince, uncertain if she should instigate further or run for help. 

“Aaaaaanywho, I’m gonna go let Allura know I’m bugging out for a couple of quintents, since things are pretty quiet, thanks to your worshipfulness,” Lance continued as he mockingly bowed his way out of the room. 

In the past he’d pestered Shiro with the requests for a little time off, but recently each time he’d gone to talk to the guy he got the definite feeling Shiro wasn’t having the best quintent, or deca-phoebe, and was pretty distracted.

And he snapped at Lance last time he asked to take a little time off to meet up with Keith in an adjacent sector. Really, he’d only be gone for ten vargas, and half of that would be flying, leaving them just enough time to grab a meal and pretty much just hang out in an entirely G-rated fashion while Blade leadership discussed repatriation of former prisoners of the Galra back to their home planets.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for you to shirk your Paladin duties so you can go mess around.”

The Blue Paladin’s jaw nearly hit the floor at the sharp tone in Shiro’s voice, and the guy hadn’t even bothered to look at him when he said it, his attention fixed on a space map hanging in the air before him.

“...I’m not...I wasn’t...it’s really….and Keith…” he stammered hopelessly.

“And speaking of Keith,” the Black Paladin said, a harder edge to his words, “I don’t know what’s gotten into the two of you that you think this _thing_ ,” The condemnation is the Black Paladin’s voice pricked a nerve, “Is appropriate for a Paladin and a Blade of Marmora when we’re in the middle of trying to end a war.”

Well, **that** wasn’t something Lance could let pass, even if his every instinct that worshipped Shiro yelled at him to shut up.

“Hey! We might be a Paladin and a Blade but we’re people, too! We can’t wage war twenty vargas a quintent, eight quintents a movement. Dudes got needs!” He winced when that last part flew out of his mouth, and Shiro levelled him with a shockingly stern expression.

But Lance was too far down this road. “And….and you’re not my dad, so quit trying to act like it!” 

It didn’t matter that vargas later Shiro tracked Lance down where he was sulking in one of the Castle spires and sincerely apologized for losing his temper and speaking of both him and Keith so dismissively. 

Lance had nodded, even accepted the friendly hand on his shoulder with a game smile. But after that he started to avoid asking Shiro about this. About a lot of things. The guy had a lot on his mind; Lance didn’t want to bug him.

Allura was quite supportive and interested in Lance’s whatever with Keith, to the point where she asked a couple of unfortunately intrusive questions about human intimacy that made the Blue Paladin want to drown himself in his dinner goo. 

So the couple of times he and Keith had managed to be in remotely close sectors, and not up to their eyeballs in missions, diplomatic meetings, and ongoing humanitarian efforts, he went to Allura to beg her very nicely for permission to hop in his Lion and jet. He usually wound up trading extra duties for time off. The darn cryopods had never been cleaner.

But so worth it! 

Last time it had been a happy coincidence the Blade leadership and Voltron both were on Gruiyelon at the same time and Keith was able to join the Paladins for a meal at the provincial governor's home. The two snuck off into the estate’s gardens where they may have traumatized a visiting dignitary when they fell out of a hedge with their suits only half on. 

That had gotten them both a bemused lecture from Allura about discretion and a gross smirk from Lotor that made Lance yank Keith away when he saw his hand unconsciously inching towards the luxite blade at the small of his back.

Ugh, seventy four quintents ago. They’d been on nearly exact opposite sides of the universe since then! 

Thankfully, Keith sucked it up and filled out the embarrassing paperwork and received clearance for 3 whole quintents. Lance had made it clear that, short of Zarkon rising from the grave, he’d prefer no one call him. He got to the swap moon early and sussed out the habitation offerings before deciding he’d use some of his GAC for something a little nicer, and bigger than a shoebox.

Now the Blue Paladin was chilling, quite literally because, for some reason, subarctic was the default temperature setting for this moon’s space inns, buck naked and ready for some action. He wriggled under the covers as he waited impatiently for Keith to arrive, rather than splay seductively on the covers. 

Shrinkage would be an embarrassing way to say hello.

Lance was elated when the door was practically flung open and a slightly out of breath and short Blade of Marmora stood there, hood up and mask on, with a small satchel of non-combat clothes and little else. Lance would never understand how the heck Keith packed so light. The Blue Paladin already had his skin care regimen lined up on the bathroom counter in order of use.

“Heeeeey,” the Blue Paladin crooned as he propped up on one elbow and hit the Blade with what he hoped was a sultry look.

“You’re already naked, aren’t you?” Keith inquired as he kicked the door shut behind him.

“I am a man of efficiency,” he explained haughtily.

“More like you’ll trip on your suit and nearly face plant in front of me again.”

“Wasn’t me.”

“I literally saw you almost bash your face on the table that one time!”

“Must’ve been some other smoking hot Cuban dude. How many are you cheating on me with?” the Blue Paladin joked.

“None,” Keith affirmed as he raised his hand to tap his identity mask off.

“...wait. Leave it on.”

“What?”

Lance grinned, slow and curling. “C’mon, man, you have to know your Blade suit is really sexy.”

The Blade dropped the hand at his temple. “It is?”

The Blue Paladin flopped back on the bed dramatically. “Holy quiznak, yes! Do Galra not believe in mirrors or something? It’s so tight and slick looking and ugh!”

“I take is ugh is good.” Keith dropped his satchel on the floor

“Very good. C’mon, babe do horrible things to me in that uniform.” Lance eyeballed the Blade as he teasingly lowered the covers a few inches so Keith could see, yup, he was definitely naked.

“I can’t kiss you like this,” the Blade complained, even as he kneed up onto the foot of the bed

Lance was 100% head over heels over the fact that Keith liked making out with him nearly as much as, and sometimes maybe even more than, doing the dirty deed. 

“Do this for me and I’ll exchange one naughty favor of your choice,” the Blue Paladin bargained, hands already reaching out for the dark, mysterious looking figure.

“Deal.”

If only Lance had made him take off the mask he would’ve seen the devious look on his boyfriend’s face that would have warned him he’d just made a deal with the space devil.

One day, when they got back to Earth and Lance was begged to write an autobiography about his amazing, legendary adventures as a Defender of the Universe, he would have to leave out the graphic description of how he lost his bottom virginity on a swap moon in the Curzian system.

The world could never know Keith was equally talented as a top as a bottom, even if he preferred the latter. Lance would’ve had to walk around with his bayard out 24/7 to fight back the hordes. The Blue Paladin tolerated Keith’s unbearable smugness about it because he was pathetically in love with him and...well, it had felt really nice.

Feeling Keith move in him, there weren’t words to describe how close it made him feel to the Red Paladin.

No, he hadn’t cried! Those were tears of...those weren’t tears! 

He’d just been caught off guard when Keith hauled Lance off the mattress and into his lap as the Blue Paladin gasped and choked on the Blade’s name because his heart had left his chest cavity and crawled up into his throat.

Whatever. 

Lance figured his feelings were all intense, out of whack and stuff, because he didn’t get to see Keith very often. Once things settled down some, the transition of Galra power stabilized with Lotor, the Blade could come home to the Castle of Lions, and Lance would see him every day without all the annoyingly sharp lovesick feelings crowding his head. 

He’d get used to seeing Keith at the table during meals and casually passing him in the hallways, and his emotions would mellow into something more manageable than the currently intense jolts of wanting followed by pathetic pining when they had to split again. 

It had been nearly seven Earth equivalent months since the amazing night that kicked all this off, and Lance was wondering if he should practice that whole patience yields focus jazz Shiro and Keith went on about.

Sometimes he felt like he was going to scream in frustration that the universe didn’t seem to care enough about him and Keith as a couple to let them, y’know, **be one**.

It didn’t help that Dr. Holt managed to get a signal from Earth to the Castle that he’d communicated all the Paladins’ messages to their respective families. But the signal wasn’t strong enough for anything more to come through clearly. 

Lance hung at Hunk and Pidge’s shoulders for nearly two quintents, waiting to see if they could strengthen the signal enough for any message from their families to come through, or even open up a live feed to any of them.

When it became clear they were simply too far away, and Earth a little too behind the space times tech-wise, Lance had been crushed. It was only Keith’s call that his ridiculous “mating leave” had been approved that pulled the Blue Paladin out of his slump.

So Lance’s emotions were a little raw. As was his backside, currently.

“I wasn’t too rough, was I?” the Blade’s unfiltered voice, his mask and uniform now gone, sounded above the Blue Paladin’s head.

“Nuh uh,” Lance sighed and shifted so he could press his cheek against Keith’s chest. “M’good, just beat.” He was, but being here helped. Being with Keith helped. He didn’t feel so alone. 

Among the other Paladins sometimes he did. It wasn’t their fault; really, they were great. But when he was like this, curled around the Blade as calloused hands drifted down his back, homesickness didn’t hurt so much. It felt as though there was a new place in the vast, volatile universe that felt safe, comforting in an unparalleled way.

“What? Mr. Stamina is calling a timeout after only round two?” the Blade asked as his fingers carded through the Blue Paladin’s hair.

“No...no, I’m a little wrung out is all. It’s not you, it’s other stuff.”

“I heard about the signal from Earth. You were hoping to hear from your family.”

“Yeeeeaaahhh.” Embarrassed by the stinging in his eyes, the Blue Paladin turned his face the other way and hauled the sheet up over his head. 

“Lance,” Keith chided, lifting the cover to prevent the Blue Paladin from hiding. “You can tell me about it, if you want.”

See, this is exactly the sort of stuff he had a hard time handling! Keith being all stupidly nice and sensitive and junk! 

Ok, so it wasn’t a bad thing, but it was extremely frustrating that Lance only got this in spurts, and they often had to go quintents without speaking, much longer without seeing each other. The Blue Paladin disliked the tendency he felt himself developing to turn each of their rare meetups into some sort emotional purging session. 

He wanted them to have fun, be happy, eat weird alien stuff and walk around the dumb space mall holding hands and be as normal as they could, given their hectic lives.

“Nope!” he replied with a determined effort at sounding much happier than he felt. “I’m better now that you’re here, so it’s all good!” 

Fake it until you make it, right? Besides, it wasn’t like he had to fake being happy around Keith. 

It was so weird; the guy who used to drive him on the wall by simply breathing was now the one spot of serenity in his life, at least when he was there. When Keith wasn’t, well, Lance simply clung to the memories of the rare times they had together with even greater tenacity.

Frustratingly, they barely had time to do any of the normal, schmoopy mall walking hand holding garbage before they were summoned back to their respective teams much earlier than anyone had planned. 

Sendak was instigating an internal uprising in the Galra empire because he was a sore loser. Some mission had come up only Keith could handle. 

Guess that was the price of dating a kickbutt space ninja, Lance thought sourly as he scrambled to gather his stuff and shove it in his carry-all, careful not to break his favorite facial moisturizer.

“Can’t that overgrown man-cat schedule his lousy civil war for a quintent I don’t already have plans?!” Lance complained bitterly to Hunk over the Paladin frequency as he and Keith tripped over each other in their haste to find their uniform pieces from where they’d been scattered all over the room.

“Sorry, man, guess he didn’t get the memo you and Keith were on your honeymoon,” the Yellow Paladin teased.

“Uuuuuggghhh!”

“Lance shh!” Keith hissed, “I’m sorry Ilun, what? Ranveig...wasn’t he one of the Galra fighting at the Kral Ze- yes. Yes, I understand. I’m leaving now.” Keith’s face deepened to a cute shade of almost purple as his Blade compatriot said something else in his ear. “...er...leave objective a-accomplished. Keith out!”

Lance paused in clasping on his leg armor, his expression bemused. “Did the Blade of Marmora actually ask if you got laid?” 

“Shut up! I was told Galra can get really aggressive, more than usual, if-” Keith raised gloved fingers to make sarcastic air quotes “-certain ‘biological imperatives are neglected’. They’re just checking.”

The Blue Paladin’s eyebrows eked up his forehead as he grinned. “Maybe I shouldn’t have put out so you could stockpile all that aggro for missions.”

Keith scowled. “We were supposed to have 3 quintents and we barely got one! I had to fill out that stupid form and Kollivan PROMISED AND-”

“Whoa, babe, whoa!” Lance immediately grabbed Keith’s raised hands where they’d clenched into fists like he was about to punch the wall or yank at his own hair, “Keith, it’s okay! Calm down,” the Blue Paladin squeezed Keith’s wrists as he determinedly dragged them around his own neck to he could get into the Blade’s face. But nicely.

“This is how it is, remember? We’ve got to make the most of what we’ve got while we’ve got it, okay? Stuff worth waiting for, right?” He pecked a light kiss to the Blade’s cheek and when all that got in response was a frustrated grunt, he tilted his head to get the other cheek, then Keith’s forehead, then decided his whole ridiculous face needed attention. Soon enough the Blade laughed quietly at the flurry of butterfly presses to his skin.

“Ok, enough, you’re like a needy puppy,” Keith sighed as his fingers gradually went lax and laced into the Paladin’s hair. 

“Keith,” Lance sighed and pulled him in for a hug. “I’m not happy about it either, but it’s no one’s fault, remember? We’re both working to stabilize the Galra empire in our own ways, and when that’s done, Lotor’s solidified his claim, and everyone calms the heck down you can come home. Right?” he prompted, pressing his forehead against the Blade’s and staring into his violet eyes. 

He’d never seen eyes like his and now he knew why. Keith was, quite literally, one of a kind in so many ways.

“Nngh...right. Be careful with Lotor. I know it seems like he’s doing everything right, but something’s eating at me about all this, and I can’t put my finger on it,” Keith urged.

“I know, it feels like there’s a shoe somewhere waiting to drop with him, but Allura trusts him and I trust her,” Lance said firmly. “She’s got more reason than anyone to be skeptical, but she says he’s genuine about wanting to help the Galra have an uninterrupted supply of quintessence that doesn’t involve sucking planets dry.”

“Yeah, I know. I trust Allura, too,” Keith grumbled. “Tell everyone I said hey.” He pulled away with a last kiss to Lance’s lips before he clipped his mask module to his temple and clicked on his chestplate. “I gotta retrieve a Blade operative that’s been in deep cover for a while, I probably won’t be able to talk until we’re back in Alliance territory.”

“S’cool, babe,” Lance promised as he hauled his torso armor on and turned for Keith to help him latch it. “Just blip me on the regular so I know you’re good, and we’ll catch up when you’re done.” When the last latch clicked shut Lance turned to smile at his boyfriend gamely.

Leaving always **always** sucked. Every time it happened Lance was sorely tempted to fling himself into the Blade’s arms and tell him he was hopelessly, pathetically in love with him. But he couldn’t chance that being the last thing he said to Keith before they parted. 

Risk that Keith would take Lance’s words with him into the silent, cold vacuum of space, unanswered.

“Tell Kollivan he owes you double the quintents off, the fate of the universe depends on it,” he joked instead.

Maybe not the universe, but Lance’s heart definitely hinged on it. Every time Keith left it felt like the Blade carved a piece away and stole off with it. The Blue Paladin was starting to feel like he didn’t have enough left to keep him going some days.

*******************************************************************************************************

Keith’s head was spinning and, for once, it wasn’t the chaos of battle, darting his fighter between warship ion blasts or barging through squads of Galra drones, luxite blade flashing. That he could handle.

This...this he didn’t have any training for, any idea how to deal with.

“You’re...you’re my...mom? How?” he asked weakly, and the wash of dizziness he felt had nothing to do with the extreme G-forces he’d pulled to get them away from Commander Trug’s attack and thread their stolen fighter through a hostile enemy fleet to safety.

“How did you get to earth?! How did you meet my dad?!”

He didn’t understand any of this!

He had to know! 

He’d waited so long, but he’d also never expected...and now it...she was here.

She was a Blade. 

She was HERE! 

He needed to know everything! 

The com in his hip pouch vibrated, and he ignored it, HE HAD TO KNOW. 

**HE HAD TO KNOW RIGHT NOW**!

“We can talk about this later,” Krolia replied calmly.

Something in Keith shattered.

“What?! You drop a bomb like this and tell me you’ll explain later?!” his voice cracked, and Keith hated himself for allowing it. 

He’d waited so long! 

Why did he have to wait longer!? There may not be a later! 

That hostile fleet was barely behind them, there was a fucking civil war going on, and they were deep in enemy territory!

Keith wanted to sob in frustration. 

Or hold his luxite Blade to her throat and demand answers. 

He was owed them!

“We’ve got more important things to deal with right now.”

Those shattered pieces inside Keith crumbled to dust. 

Things that were more important than him? Than explaining why she left them?! Left **her child**?!

Was it because he was so very human looking, a weak and pathetic specimen of a Galra?! That she took one look at his stupid, chubby baby face and knew he wasn’t worth her time?! Because he was something to be thrown away and forgotten?!

Keith grit his teeth, unable to trust his tongue, afraid of what might come out. His eyes clenched shut and all that **anger** , that **_rage_** , that **_fear_** he thought had been tempered in him over the last few months, with Lance’s help, soothed by his kind presence, his sweet touch, roared to life in Keith once more.

The Blade felt like he was burning inside, everything in him turning to ash in tics.

“FINE.”

Fuck her! 

Fuck the Blade too! They knew who she was, who HE was when they sent him on this mission. Kollivan had told him not to let emotion cloud his judgement, he **KNEW**. 

Emotions weren’t clouding Keith’s judgement; the fury in him burned with a crystalline clarity he’d not felt in a long time.

He **_HATED_** Krolia.

*********************************************************************************************

Lance sat hunched over his com, left foot jiggling non stop as he tapped it again. He waited 2 doboshes then blipped again. One dobosh.Another blip.

“A watched pot never boils,” Shiro commented without looking away from the star map he was flicking Alliance markers over to indicate where Galra forces had willingly withdrawn under Lotor’s orders.

Lance ignored him, frowning at the com as he blipped again.

Still no answer.

It wasn’t like he and Keith kept any sort of real chat schedule, but the one thing he could count on was that the Blade would at least send him a blip every 40 vargas or so.

It had been one hundred and thirty-four.

“Lance, quit torturing yourself,” Hunk said gently as he slid a plate of green translucent cookies in front of him. “If you leave it alone for a while you’ll probably come back to Keith blowing up your inbox.”

Two hundred and sixteen vargas.

“Lance! If you’re not going to help get out!” Pidge scolded as her hand dashed out to grab the interface pad as the Blue Paladin stood there holding it in one hand, completely deaf to her asking him to check the connection half a dozen times.

Three hundred and two vargas.

The Blue Paladin slumped into the lounge area and flung himself upside down into a seat, head tipped towards the floor, the com resting on it as he squinted at it upside down. He’d had Hunk run a diagnostic on it, and the engineer said it was working just fine. 

After ten quintents, he’d gone to Allura and asked her to please please contact the Blade to make sure Keith was okay. They received a terse reply back that Keith and another operative were on an important mission, and the Blade of Marmora had no any indication they were dead.

That wasn’t exactly reassuring since maybe the Blade wouldn’t get information on the whole...death thing. It was a big universe after all.

No. No no no!

Lance was NOT going to go down that path, no way! Keith was alive, he was 100% set on that.

So why wasn’t he answering? 

Keith had been on missions before, long ones, deep in hostile space, and he’d always been good about responding to Lance’s little coded nudges.

Maybe, the Blue Paladin considered, Lance was being too pushy, too clingy. Keith, after all, had been very closed off for a long time. Then Lance crashed into his life, and his bed, all loud and desperate and aggressively cuddly.

Maybe Keith needed some space.

Lance groaned loud and long at that thought. Then choked because something was in his mouth.

“PPFFTT! BBLLPPTTSS! What the heck?!” He picked up one of the mice by the tail and scowled. “Can’t a guy sulk in peace?!”

Apparently not, as they scamped over his chest, squeaking for attention. Lance sat up to stare down at them morosely. “At least you guys like me.” He offered a finger to the fattest one and it immediately flopped belly up for tummy rubs.

“This sucks. If I knew why he went all radio silent I’d at least have idea what I did wrong. Have a chance to fix it. I mean, if he wants space, I can give it to him. We **live** in space!” Lance grumbled, offering up more rubs to the other mice as they scuttled over his hand. The pink one sat up and squeaked at him in a way that sounded questioning.

“...I guess I never knew what it meant to love someone the way I love Keith. He’s not like anyone I’ve ever met before, probably because he’s part alien, but still,” Lance explained. The other mice slowly rolled over and sat up, peering up at him intently.

“He’s brave and funny and you’d never know it when you first meet him, but he’s really sensitive. He’s been through so much, he’s so strong. He makes me want to be a better person. That is so weird to say. I’m mean, I’m pretty great already,” Lance chuckled. 

Then he sniffed and scrubbed the sleeve of his hoodie over his nose.

“Oh, who I am kidding? I don’t have anything to offer. I’m not a natural leader like Shiro or super smart like Hunk or Pidge, or magical like Allura. And I’m definitely not the fighter Keith is. I’m just...me.”

Stupid emotions. His mom always said being soft hearted wasn’t a bad thing, but jeez! Would it kill him to be able to get upset or mad or overwhelmed without his darn eyes watering?! He felt so flipping weak whenever it happened.

“Sure he likes me and, don’t get me wrong, the sex is incredible... but why would he...why the heck would he l-love _me_? I’m not anyone special.”

**************************************************************************************************

“Going through the light triggers glimpses of the past and the future.” 

The past. Keith saw what happened. It tumbled through his mind in fractured pieces, images, voices he’d not heard in so long. Bowled him over and left him gasping, a hand pressed to his chest as his heart pounded in confusion, sadness.

 _Dad_.

His mother stayed on Earth to protect the Blue Lion. 

She left to protect them. Him. Keith.

Every time the bizarre light washed over them Keith was left reeling. Some of what it showed filled in the gaps in his memory, his past, why his life had been the way it was. 

What Krolia’s had been like, even before she crashed on Earth.

He learned her. Growing up Galra, questioning why their race was so vicious, so needlessly oppressive when there was no threat in the known universe that could compete with the omnipresent force of Zarkon’s expansive military, his undeniable, menacing power.

Through whispers and barely voiced, subtle inquiries the Blade found her, she found other Galra who thought the same. That it shouldn’t be this way. They shouldn’t be this way. They could be better than this.

Other times the light showed him things he couldn’t bear. His father dying, the group homes, the fights, the loneliness. Shiro strapped to a table, his face scarred. Naxzela about to blow and take everyone he cared about with it. The Blades of Marmora beating him, telling him to return the knife he'd held onto all his life, unable to understand what it was, what it meant, only that it was precious to him. 

It showed him Lance. Keith could hardly stand it.

They screamed at each other, kissed one another, saved each other’s lives over and over again. Lance being attentive, kind, giving Keith’s existence new meaning. Making him feel like more than a Paladin, than a Blade, a fighter, a weapon, a reluctant leader. Someone worthy of love.

“The blue one.”

Keith blinked at his mother from where he was roasting a hunk of the latest creature they’d trapped. Yorak took advantage of his distraction to swipe it and teleport across the cavern before Keith could stop him. The Blade sighed and picked up another piece of meat to cook for his lunch before the clever cosmic wolf stole it again. 

He didn’t look at his mother; he didn’t want to know what he’d see.

“Tell me about him.”

“What’s to tell? You’re seeing the same stuff I am,” he replied dismissively. Stupid fucking space-time distortions. They had no control over what it would reveal.

Keith could have 100% lived the rest of his life on the back of this cosmic whale without having his parents fucking beamed directly into his brain. 

“Keith,” Krolia’s voice was soft and her lavender hand crossed the space between them to tentatively land on his. “You’ve told me about Shiro, and I am so pleased to learn what he’s done for you and is to you. Hunk and Pidge, Coran, Allura. You’ve spoken of them. They seem wonderful. But you never speak of this one. Lance.”

Keith’s lips thinned into a tight line as he glared into the fire.

“I know he’s important to you. I’d like to know him also.”

Like the ancient saying went, time heals all wounds.

Well, Keith thought, maybe not all of them. But so much distance between he and his mother had been bridged over the months they’d been travelling on the back of the great cosmic beast, even if the Blade couldn’t tell if they’d covered significant distance; the center of the quantum abyss still seemed unfathomably far away.

So many quintents, countless vargas gone, over a deca-phoebe since he’d seen Lance, spoken to him. Not even a blip except that one last fucking time, right after they released Ranveig’s weapon and Krolia had upended the Blade’s entire existence. 

If he’d only answered! If he’d known it would be the last time he would have answered! 

He would have told Lance...he would have **told** him. 

But no messages got in or out of the quantum abyss; it crushed Keith the same way it destroyed planets and neutron stars.

The Blade squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face away, but he didn’t shake off her hand. “I can’t. It’s...hard. It’s too hard.”

He didn’t know if he'd ever see Lance again. Hear his voice, touch him, be touched by him. Open his eyes and be swallowed up in endless blue .

Something in Keith, something that had slowly risen from the ashes as he and Krolia grew closer, was so delicate he was afraid if he touched on it it may break again and never recover.

Hope.

Hope would drive him crazy, if he let it. So he tried to deal with how things were and not torture himself with thoughts of how they should be. 

How he should be with Lance, with Voltron. He should be home.

But this was home too, a new, strange, unexpected one. His mother was here. She’d become home to him also. Sometimes Keith hated space, the war, but he didn’t hate everything it brought him. Family, in so many ways. He even had a fucking dog, or cosmic teleporting wolf, anyway.

“Keith,” Krolia ventured, her clawed hand soft on his and he found himself grabbing it hard, “When the light showed me your father died, you were asleep. And I was relieved because I didn’t want you to see how it affected me.” 

The Blade dared to look at her, and he wished he hadn’t. 

He knew that expression; he’d seen it in the mirror for so long he’d come to hate his reflection. He felt it so often now, and it hollowed him out.

Bereft.

“All this time, so much distance from you and your father, but as long as I knew you were alive it gave me strength. Learning he was gone, that you were left alone. I felt so weak, Keith, helpless, because of it.” Her other hand left his and rose to carefully push back a lock of his dark hair before touching his cheek, an affectionate gesture Keith would never understand how he’d lived so long without. 

A mother’s touch. 

“But what I felt when I knew I would never see him again? It was nothing compared to the grief I felt for you. You suffered so much alone. You’re not alone now.”

The Blade dropped his food into the fire as he collapsed into his mother’s embrace. It all washed over him, as relentless as the horrible light that peeled away every single one his defenses with each flash of his life. Shiro. The Paladins. He may very well never see them again. Lance. 

He could be dead. He could think Keith was dead. 

The Blade felt like he **was** dying.

Keith ground his face into her chestplate, his breathing ragged as the suffocating tightness in his chest doubled, tripled, clenched so hard he could hardly get the words out. 

“H-he loves the ocean….”

*********************************************************************************************************

Lance tapped his foot restlessly as he watched the newest Sincline ship head towards the quintessence field portal. “Allura, come back safe.” 

They were so close. If this all went they way they hoped, and that was a BIG if, maybe Lotor’s previously far-fetched sounding plan could work. The Galra wouldn’t need to raid planets, take over systems to fuel their empire. Sendak would lose any sway he had over his rebels if Lotor delivered to all Galra, everywhere, unlimited quintessence without conquest, without the need to fight and die for it to keep their ships, their cities, their very lives running.

He eyeballed the purple half Galra on the Castle’s main monitor with wary hope. Despite his misgivings, all of their doubts, the Prince had done nothing but prove his intentions were true, even if Lance still didn’t like the way he eyeballed the Princess. She was the universe’s best hope for lasting peace; shoot him for being protective.

And she was his friend, a sympathetic ear when she’d found him sitting on a cold bulkhead, wrapped in his old Altean robe, Lion slippers by his side as he stared out at the vast expanse of space and thought of Keith. 

_What happened? Where did he go?_

Lance thought maybe he’d be okay, he could live without the Blade’s touch, that intimate smile he gave only when he and the Blue Paladin were curled around each other, as long he knew Keith was alright. 

That somewhere in the dark and cold the Red Paladin still burned bright.

“Lance,” the Princess murmured as he gracefully folded her legs to sit beside him. “I know you’re worried, but it will be alright.”

“How do you know?” He glanced over at her. “You said your ability couldn’t reach everywhere. Allura, you’re really smart, but you don’t know everything. Maybe he’s sick of me, of Voltron. Maybe...maybe he decided the Blade are his people, his family now.” 

He couldn’t give voice to the other dreadful option that kept pushing at the back of his mind each time he sent a blip or tried to open a channel and received nothing but awful silence.

“I have faith,” she replied, her expression as serene as ever. Allura really was magical, because he felt a little better when she said that. “Keith is very strong. He’ll return.”

Now, the Blue Paladin hoped whatever magic Allura had kept her safe in the quintessence field...her and Lotor both. Because if the Prince followed through on his promises, maybe the Blade of Marmora could finally come out of hiding, bring Keith with them.

They waited anxious doboshes, then a varga, and Lance twitched nearly as much as Coran, whose mustache might not survive this experimental flight.

“Wait a tic, we’ve got an incoming craft! It’s...it’s an Altean pod! A really old one!”

“Put it on screen,” Shiro ordered.

 _Keith_ …

Lance’s jaw dropped as he stared.

He was... _alive. He was alive_. He was **here**. 

Completely caught off guard by the Blade’s sudden appearance, Lance wasn’t all prepared for the wave of gut-churning vertigo that overtook him, the way he knees threatened to unlock and send him to the floor. Something caught in his throat, a huge knot, choking any response he might’ve given voice to, a cry of the Blade’s name. 

Lance didn’t comprehend the hurried rush of voices around him, Shiro talking, Coran babbling, all he saw was the Blade, his pale face pinched and serious. He couldn’t take anything in except Keith. Only when the com screen switched off, the Red Paladin telling them he would be docking in the Castle shortly, did Lance regain some of his senses.

“Did...did he look bigger to you guys?” he asked weakly, eyes still fastened on the blank screen.

“Lance, c’mon!” Hunk grabbed his arm and practically dragged the Blue Paladin with him, heading for the landing bay. “Are you okay? You look a little sick, man.” the Yellow Paladin queried gently. “I thought you’d be excited! Keith’s back!”

“Y-yeah...no...I dunno…” Lance mumbled through numb lips. He shook his head hard, then slapped both his cheeks crisply. He had to get it together! Keith was here! So what if the Blue Paladin had been barely hanging on for the last nine hundred and eighty-seven vargas?! 

He knew Keith had to have a good reason... **HE FRICKING BETTER**.

When the Blue Paladin stood in the landing bay, eagerly watching the strange white craft land, he was ready. He was soooo ready. He’d survived the last nearly thousand vargas fine, just fiiiiiine, he was cool, super chill! 

He was NOT completely frazzled by the sudden appearance of his boyfriend after nearly 50 quintents spent wondering where he went wrong, what he did to drive him away, if the Blade was dead, if he hated Lance, if Lance was just a needy loser who drove Keith literally to the other side of the universe to get away from him.

When Keith stepped out of the craft, Lance was not fine.

_What...what happened to you?_

The Blade was broad across his shoulders in a way he’d not been before, his hair longer, falling past his jaw when before it had skimmed his cheekbones, his legs as he strode towards them with purposeful, powerful strides, looked like he could crush Thralian melons between them, or Lance’s head. 

The urge to ask Keith to do exactly that was so strong Lance cringed, embarrassed at the stupid, horribly timed turns his mind took. He was all over the place, relieved, shocked, glad, pissed! 

So he did what he always did and made a terrible joke.

“Hold on!” he yelled, barging towards the Blade. “How do we know you’re the real Keith?” _My Keith_. “And not his bigger, cooler, grizzled older brother?”

“I don’t have time for this, Lance!” Keith barked, his voice sharp and cutting as his luxite blade as he stormed past the Blue Paladin.

Lance was stung, horribly so, and his arms dropped from where they been suspended in mid-air, unconsciously inviting a hug that didn’t happen.

The Blue Paladin gaped at Keith’s profile a few tics longer before a single thought welled up in him, agonizing and infuriating.

 _Was this quiznaking mullet headed jerk **TALLER** than him now too_?!

“HEY EVERYBODY! KEITH’S BACK!” the Blue Paladin yelled with venom in his voice.

**************************************************************************************************

“I don’t have time for this, Lance!” Keith yelled as he stormed towards the rest of the Paladins. God, he wished he did. “We need to stop Lotor! He’s been lying to all of us!”

The Blade wanted more than anything to fall into those open arms. He couldn’t chance a look at Lance because he knew if he did he’d never be able to drag his gaze away, and there were countless lives at stake.

He couldn’t give into the crushing relief at seeing Lance, beautiful, bold, and finally **finally** within reach. Not when Lotor was with the Princess, in the fucking quintessence field! They had to stop him! Right now!

The Blade waited over two years, he could wait a few more vargas to tell Lance...to tell him _everything_. 

All of it, nothing held back.

It all happened so fast, the Altean habitat at the center of the quantum abyss, Romelle, their escape. The horror on everyone’s face as the Altean girl related how Lotor had treated her family, her entire race like livestock, a macabre harvest, so the arrogant asshole could pursue his mad dreams of power. 

While time had warped and distorted and trickled past slow as molasses in the quantum abyss, here, in the bright, familiar lights of the Castle, it felt to the Blade like everything flashed by him in a tic. 

Allura threw Lotor so hard across the deck the royal shitbag bounced twice. Shiro clutched his head as he dropped to his knees with an agonized scream. Explosions. Someone blew the bay doors to steal the Sincline ships. 

Keith spun in a circle, unsure who he should help, whom to stop.

Lance shouldered his bayard rifle, piercing eyes narrowed and focused. “Allura and I will secure Lotor! Hunk, help Shiro! Everyone else get down to the hangar and stop those guys!” Keith paused only half a tic, caught off guard by the sure, commanding tone in Lance’s voice, before he turned and ran for the ships.

There **was** greatness in his Blue Paladin.

When it was all over. The mad, panicky rush of flying and fighting and nearly dying over and over.

Clones.

Quintessence.

A monstrous machine.

Rips in the fabric of space-time.

Magic.

The Black Lion.

Shiro.

A Castle crushed to diamonds.

Everything.

When it all finally stopped, the Red Paladin found himself sitting on a chair in an Olkarion med unit, fingers steepled under his chin as he stared at the unconscious, white haired figure on the bed, Shiro’s familiar face drawn in a way he didn’t recognize.

He was tired. The Red...the Black Paladin was so tired.

Sometimes his eyes strayed from Shiro’s face to his arm, what was left of it. It drew his guilty gaze like a magnet. Keith had done that.

No, he couldn’t think like that. 

That wasn’t Shiro, that had been a twisted reflection of his dearest friend. Who had tried to kill him. 

Keith hadn’t known at the time, it almost didn’t matter than he knew now. 

All he felt was the paralyzing realization his brother was going to murder him and Lance may never know what happened. 

Or Lance was already dead, the nightmare wearing Shiro’s face claimed he was. They all were. Allura, Hunk, Pidge, Coran. Lance. All dead, gone. 

Shiro had growled with a sick, demented fury distorting his face, “Quit fighting, Keith!”

It was so tempting. Keith could. He could just...stop. He could die and the pain would end. The pain in his body, in his heart. In the very idea of living in a universe where Lance was gone, where Shiro was a horrendous beast.

But he didn’t. Keith would never stop. Even if everyone died, if every planet the Galra touched burned to a husk he would never stop fighting. Even if he was alone, he wouldn’t quit. 

Lance wouldn’t have wanted him to.

“Keith,” a soft voice came with a softer touch to his shoulder, and the Paladin started. He looked over his shoulder at his mother, hurriedly swiping at his eyes. “You’ve been here for vargas. When Shiro wakes up we’ll let you know.” She nodded to Allura at her side.

“Go Keith, Shiro is not the only one who needs rest,” the Princess said with a sad smile.

He nodded, once, twice, the motion jerky as he pushed up from the chair. He hurt all over, down to his bones, to his soul. No one should feel this worn down, especially not someone only 22 Earth years old.

He swiped his hand down his face, as though the motion would take the exhaustion with it, but no luck. He still felt old and beat up as shit. The Black Lion rumbled at him, even from across the capital, a solid, reassuring presence in his mind. 

The Black Lion felt...different, more natural now. The veil that had been between him and Black gone, transmuted via Allura’s strange, dazzling abilities back into Shiro, into the body sleeping on the bed at Keith’s back as he turned for the door.

A sliver of blue, there and gone in a tic, caught his eye and the Black Paladin suddenly didn’t feel all that tired as he hurried to catch it. He barely managed, calling out, “Lance!” just as the Blue Paladin nearly turned the corner. 

Keith’s eyebrow arched as he watched Lance stutter to a halt then glance over his shoulder with a strange expression. It seemed...wary. 

“Lance, wait. We need to talk.”

The looked changed, and not into something Keith liked. He knew that look, it was the one the Blue Paladin, or maybe he was Red...he couldn’t think about that now...usually had right before he slinked out of a room sit in some forgotten corner and brood. 

Keith wasn’t having any of that, and his hand hooked hard into Lance’s elbow, hauling him down the corridor.

“What the-?! Hey, what’s with the manhandling?!” Lance yelped as he was forcibly dragged, Keith’s free hand dashing out to shove open one door, occupied, the next he startled the patient in that room, another...there. Empty.

He yanked Lance in and kicked the door shut behind him before turning to face him.

“Lance, I-” he started, then the words shriveled on his tongue. And he just stared.

Fuck, he’d thought he remembered Lance so well, had etched every line of his face, his body into his memory with such fierceness Keith was taken aback when he realized it really didn’t do the Paladin justice. 

Or maybe he was seeing him for the first time without any fear of what the tanned young man meant to him, what he felt for the Blue Paladin. 

How so much time apart hadn’t caused this fire in him for Lance to smolder and die; instead it had refined into something searing, a blowtorch that burned away the last of his reservations.

He needed him. He wasn’t going to leave him again.

“Fuck, it’s been so long...I don’t even know where to start,” he managed to get out, it was miracle considering he felt winded just from looking Lance full in the face for the first time in what felt like eons.

“Most people start at the start,” the Blue Paladin snipped, arms crossing over his chest.

There was so much to tell him explain how he got to this point, why he looked like this, felt like this! 

“Krolia was the Blade operative I was sent to retrieve. She knew who I was right away.” He rushed through it all, the search for the refined quintessence, the endless voyage between space-time drop offs.

“It’s been two years, Lance.” He watched the Blue Paladin’s pinched face slowly morph into something even less pleasant, something tense as Lance gnawed at his lower lip and his eyes didn’t exactly meet Keith’s, instead skirting away over and over.

“I had a lot of bonding moments with my mom,” the Black Paladin joked badly. Lance didn’t crack a smile, if anything his mouth turned downward. 

“I had a lot of time to think, there wasn’t really anything else to do...I gained...clarity?” Keith ventured as he watched the Blue Paladin hunch, his shoulders drawing in. “About us,” he elaborated, not understanding why Lance was drawing away when all the Black Paladin wanted him closer. “It was really hard, but being away for so long, just me and her, I figured out some stuff.”

Lance didn’t respond and the Blade started to flounder. “And then Shiro...fuck, Shiro! He tried to kill me.” Keith started to pace, a hand rising up to push his shaggier than ever hair off his face, 

“That monster wearing his face. It was so fucking close and...all I could think was he murdered all of you, that you were dead, he said you were and...I wanted to give up.”

He turned to Lance, his eyes wide and desperate because he **wasn’t _SAYING ANYTHING_**!

“I nearly did, I let go and we were falling...and...and…” Keith’s hand dropped from his hair and he gripped Lance’s shoulders, like he could impart the seriousness of what he was trying to say, in this horrible, fractured way, like how his life had been cracked, jumbled, time and the past and future all tangled up in each other for 2 years. 

Lance flinched in his grasp and his head turned away, gauntlet swiping clumsily at his face.

“...I couldn’t...because then you’d never know...I had to tell you…”

Lance wrenched out of his arms and stumbled back a couple of steps. “Just spit it out, Keith!”

After all this time, he could.

“I love you. I’m not leaving again. I’m **IN** love with you, Lance.”

He wasn’t scared anymore. Not even if Lance didn’t say it back, because he was home now. The Blade could go fuck themselves, he was staying with Voltron, with Lance and they were going back to Earth as soon as they got Shiro up and moving. 

He’d do it right and, hopefully, this time he’d have the time to convince Lance love him back.

Keith could take anything else the universe threw at him because he was in love with this man, this amazing, strong, fearless Paladin with azure eyes he wanted to drown in for the rest of his quiznaking life.

What he couldn’t take the sudden slam to his solar plexus that knocked him across the room and onto his ass.

*************************************************************************************

 _We need to talk_.

The four words no one ever wants to hear.

Lance sort of wanted to throw up the tic Keith said it. He hoped if he did projectile vomit it was all over the Blade because the jerk was hauling him down the hallway like an unruly kid. 

Then he was pushed into an empty med room and Keith was standing there in front of him looking tense and unhappy. 

Well, excuuuuuuuuse him for existing and making Keith have to do the breakup thing to his actual face instead of space ghosting him.

Then Keith started talking about his mother. 

_His mom_. Krolia. 

Keith had finally found her, knew where he came from. And Lance, despite being heartbroken, he was glad for Keith. He knew how much family can mean, when you let them in. He was almost happy enough for Keith to nearly forget he was miserable the dingus he's in love with was dumping him.

But, yeah, no. Keith was just working his way around to it in that god awful awkward way of his. Lance thought he’d gotten better, the Blade had been so open with him, shared so much, and now, when things got...however they were now, he was tongue-tied and fumbling like he used to.

Bonding moments, ha, that was rich. What about _their_ bonding moment, all of them? When Keith kissed him so sweetly it made Lance want to cry, when he took him to a strange beach, when he listened to Lance sigh over how much his missed his own family, when they flew across star systems just to share a meal and a few doboshes together? 

Guess it wasn’t enough. He’d thought it would be.

Lance should’ve seen it coming. **He** wasn’t enough. Keith had his mom now, the Blade, a whole race who had accepted him, even if he looked nothing like them, brought him under their wing, gave him a purpose he seemed much more at ease with than he ever had when he’d lead Voltron.

And Lance? Lance was just...not anything Keith needed. He was brash, cocky when it didn’t merit it, loud when he should be quiet, restless when patience, stillness was required. He was everything Keith wasn’t. Sure he was better with people, but that wasn’t a skill, he was just a fast talker, disarming people with a quip and a grin so they knew he was the funny one, since he wasn’t the smartest or the most capable.

“It’s been two years, Lance.”

Two years? _Two years_.

Lance blinked. Jeez, no wonder Keith was so...so **THICC**. 

And no wonder he was ending this, he’d had two years to think about it without Lance blathering in his ear or distracting him with sexy shenanigans. Two years to reflect on how short the Blue Paladin fell of what someone like Keith deserved.

Of course he got clarity on their relationship. That it was fun while it lasted, but it had run its course in the 2 years Keith had been cruising on a space whale and catching up with his mom.

Maybe Keith’s mom didn’t approve?

Lance bit his lip, cramming down the choking noise that threatened to sneak out of him without his permission. He’d wanted two years with Keith; heck, he wanted a lot more than that.

But there was what you want versus you get, and his mama always said you have to make the best of what you get.

But how do you make the best of nothing? Anything times zero was still zero.

The Blue Paladin hunched defensively as Keith started pacing. Even over the butthurt screaming in his own head, he still heard everything Keith said and his heart, despite itself, went out to the Blade. 

Shiro tried to kill him, or at least that _thing_ that had been masquerading as the Black Paladin for who knows how long.

That explained so much about not-Shiro’s attitude, how snappy, unapproachable he’d been for so long. 

Lance felt indescribably guilty. If only he’d known, paid attention when they were joined in the Lion’s minds. 

Shiro, the real Shiro, had called out to him, to Lance. And he hadn’t heard, Lance hadn’t tried hard enough. If he’d just tried harder he could’ve figured out what was going on, stopped all of this...Lotor… not-Shiro...the quintessence field...the Castle being destroyed...Keith nearly being murdered because Lance was too thick skulled to realize when someone was screaming for help.

“I couldn’t.” 

Lance heard Keith’s voice as though from underwater, distorted, garbled, 

“I had to tell you.”

The Blue Paladin realized his heart was beating so fast it pounded in his ears; this must be what heartbreak sounded like.

“J-just spit it out already!” he hissed. Just get it over with so Lance could starting figuring out how the heck the rest of his life was going to look with Keith there but not **there** with him.

He shuddered when the Blade touched him, strong hands gripping his shoulders. He wanted to yank away in anger, in spite, but a larger part of him desperately needed to let this last just another few tics.

“I love you.”

…what?

“I’m not leaving again.”

WHAT?!

“I’m **in** love with you, Lance.”

**WHAT THE QUIZNAK?!?!**

The Blue Paladin reacted instinctively, just as he did when he’d previously been so scared for and ticked at and frustrated with Keith.

He punched him as hard as he could.

“¿ ** _Estás bromeando? Qué clase de cabrón comienza una confesión de amor con ‘Tenemos que hablar’_**?!” the Blue Paladin shouted, already stalking across the room before Keith even finished landing on his butt. He stood over him, fists clenched at his sides, positively shaking with anger, disbelief.

“¡ ** _No sobreviví esta guerra para morir de un infarto porque estás tan emocionalmente constipado que no sabes cómo tener una conversación normal_**!” 

Keith was a flipping nightmare, hadn’t he learned anything being around, y’know, regular people? Lance was so twisted up and irate he didn’t know if he wanted to punch him again or not. No, he definitely wanted to punch him again!

“Lance...wha-?” the Blade stammered, blinking up at him with those ridiculous, stupidly pretty, eyes. The nerve of him! How dare he look so gorgeous, the jerk!

“¡ ** _Eres el más grande mongo que he conocido y tienes mucha suerte de que yo también te ame, porque debería patearte el trasero por esto_** ¡”

Lance chucked his helmet at him with all his might, missing because the jerk ducked and it bounced off the wall. Keith was the absolute worst! 

“Lance!” The Blade rolled to his feet quickly, hands up .”I don’t-”

Lance hollered, “¿ ** _Sabes qué? No. ¡Voy a patearte el trasero en este momento, singao_**!” and threw a right.

The Blade caught it easily in the palm of his hand.

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND SPANISH, ASSHOLE!” he roared right back into Lance’s face. 

The Blue Paladin blinked then tugged, trying to get free. “Let go!” 

“No! Not until you translate what the fuck you just said because all I got was constipation and amor!” 

The Blue Paladin tugged again and wound up going in the opposite direction he intended when Keith tightened his grip and hauled him into a bone cracking hug, their armor clanking, arms like a vice around him.

He wanted to be mad, he really really did, he had every right because his boyfriend was a complete and utter idiot!

Who was in love with him. 

With Lance. 

Who was in love with him! 

It went both ways, ohhh emmmmm geeeeeee.

“You’re an idiot,” he growled and Keith’s ridiculous hair got in his nose. He didn’t brush it away.

“Probably.” The Blade’s voice was soft and the furious ball of nerves and gut wrenching anxiety in the Blue Paladin decided it wasn’t going to manifest as vomit or violence...instead he got tears. Yay.

“I thought you were dumping me!!!” Well, at least he could yell right into Keith’s ear, even if it mostly sounded like a sob. Dangit, he really was crying.

Keith pulled back, “Why would I dump you?!” He looked adorably, hotly, muscularly confused. Lance’s brain was being stupid again. But, c’mon, Keith was hugging him really hard and, whoa, there were more muscles there than last time, or maybe they were just bigger. Awesome.

“Because ‘ _we need to talk_ ’ is code for I’m dumping you! Everyone knows that!” 

“I didn’t know that!”

“Because you’re emotionally constipated!”

“...oh...so that’s what you meant.”

“What did you think I meant?”

“I don’t speak Spanish, you ass. I thought maybe you were…” Keith’s nose wrinkled up.

“Constipated?” Lance grinned. Oh, his boyfriend was so adorably moronic right now.

“Ok, we need to stop saying that word. Like right now.”

“Fine. Just for future reference, don’t say ‘we need to talk’,” Lance said, in perfect imitation of Keith’s broody voice. “As a lead into ANY conversation. I am too young to get grey hair because you use that to start a convo about what movie to watch.”

“Duly noted.”

Lance noticed Keith still had a really firm grip around his waist, and Lance’s arms were now over the Blade’s shoulders. Or the Red...Black Paladin?

“Haven’t seen you in this armor in awhile.” He’d not had a chance to appreciate it while they were trying not to die. Again. That was getting really old.

“Get used to it. I meant what I said. Are you gonna tell me any of the rest of what you were just screaming at me?”

Lance’s knees went noodly because his emotions sucked and drained all the energy out of him. Probably that fight with Lotor had something to do with it, but most of this was dealing with...Keith stuff.

“Remind me what you said again,” he insisted. 

“Really?!”

Lance hit him with his **yes really really** face.

“Ugh, you suck. I’m in love with you. Happy?” The Black Paladin scowled at him and Lance thought...well, that was just perfect, so very, utterly, stupidly Keith.

“Yuuuuuuup. One more time for the people in the back.”

“I’m already regretting this.” 

Keith’s words might say nope but his arms still around Lance said yasssssssss.

“Too late. You’re stuck with me,” Lance said with determination. “And AGAIN, I thought you were dumping me. I was about to puke on your shoes.” He gave Keith a wounded look.

“ _I am in love with you, you dick_.”

Lance opened his mouth to protest that **that** was not an acceptable pet name, but then his mouth was a little busy.

One thousand fourteen vargas, nearly fifty two quintents since he last felt this. And he came so close to never having it again. Keith nearly died. They both did. Again, that really needed to stop.

He sure hoped the Black Paladin wasn’t grossed out kissing a guy with tears sliding down his face. At least Lance knew he was a pretty crier.

His hand wound into dark hair and, dangit, if Keith just spent two years on a weird space whale why was his hair so soft? It should be all nasty and tangled and not slide through Lance’s fingers so easily.

Ohhh, and it was longer, even better, and Lance’s other hand came up to bury in it, tip the Black Paladin’s face to the perfect angle as he deepened the kiss, sighing happily at the familiar, soft slide of Keith’s lips against his. Now he was weak-kneed in a new, entirely welcome way and was more than happy to hang off Keith’s magnificently broad shoulders limply.

“Are you ever going to tell me what you were just screaming?” Keith finally asked when he pulled back incrementally, his forehead resting against Lance’s.

“I said you’re lucky I love you because I should kick your ass.”

The Black Paladin gasped dramatically and raised a hand to his mouth. “Did you just curse?!” 

“In both Spanish and English, so understand the depths of my butt hurt and be ashamed. I can practically hear _mi madre_ hissing from Earth.”

Keith nodded, his face serious, but not in a bad way and Lance remembered again it had been ages since he’d seen him, touched him. But it was way longer for Keith.

“So...two years huh?”

“Yeah.”

“You got to really know your mom?”

“Yeah.”

“And she’s cool.”

“Yeah.”

“And this quantum abyss place, you couldn’t get a signal at all?

“Yeah.”

“And you thought about me.”

“Yeah. All the time.”

Lance blinked. Okay, that was going to take some adjustment, going from dead silence to Keith just saying it outright like that. 

The fingers playing in the Black Paladin’s hair moved to hover over the new scar on his cheek.

“Does it hurt?”

“Not anymore.” Keith was watching him with an intensity Lance wasn’t quite used to. Not yet, but he sure hoped to be soon enough.

“Can I touch it?”

“You can touch anything you want.”

The Blue Paladin paused. “We...we should...um...figure out where we’re staying since our Castle got blown up.” Because, yeah, when Keith put down an invitation like that Lance was going to pick it up and run with it, but not in a momentarily empty room in a med unit that he wasn’t sure had a lock.

**************************************************************************************************

They ended up following Pidge and Romelle to the tree habitats on the south side of the city Ryner had offered. The Olkari leader had apologized needlessly, saying had she known the Paladins of Voltron were returning they would have made the former palace of Lubos available. 

“We’re going to need to learn to live without fancy digs for a while, it’s cool,” Lance assured her with a kind smile Keith was equally charmed by. Now that everything that had spun out of control had slowed, he found himself in the Blue Paladin’s orbit once more, drawn closer with each passing dobosh.

They parted with the girls at the treehouse Ryner showed them, high up in the canopy, connected to other dwellings by a series of swaying bridges, but theirs was the only one on the tree at this level. 

Perfect, Keith though as he pushed open the door and peered in. It wasn’t anything fancy, but clean, woodsy and, most importantly, private. He barely made it in before Lance swung a hand out to shut the door and quickly batted their carry-alls out of Keith’s grip, then the Black Paladin was hauled in for a kiss.

By his hair.

“Oh fuck,” he groaned just before Lance’s mouth descended on his. Another thing he thought he remembered with perfect clarity, the way Lance felt against him. Clearly his memory was a faulty thing, or maybe it never felt exactly like this before. 

Nothing between them, not the threat of impending, inevitable distance, not Keith’s trepidation, the intensity of his fear which swallowed him up along with unknown depths of foreign feelings that had weighed him down with worry that he was alone in this.

But now Lance’s arms around him, his mouth moving slowly against his, kept Keith buoyed up, and he thought he might finally understand this walking on air thing as their armor started hitting the floor.

No, wait, that was Lance slithering his hands down under Keith's thighs and picking him up. With a grunt.

“Y’okay there?” Keith snickered, nose brushing the Blue Paladin’s cheek.

“Fine,” Lance responded with a slight strain to his voice. “Ugh.” He loosened his grip and Keith’s feet met the wooden floor again. “Damn, babe, you got all...beefy.”

“Two years of living on the back of a cosmic whale hunting for every meal will do that. No convenient goo.” The Black Paladin grinned and his own hands snaked down to wrap around Lance’s long, delectable legs and hauled him right up with no effort at all.

“Whoa!” Lance exclaimed as his legs automatically locked around Keith’s waist and the Black Paladin grinned up at him, soaking up those wide blue eyes looking down at him appreciatively, speculatively. 

“...Whoa.” This time it was hushed.

Dark hands came to rest on Keith’s shoulders, then they began to wander, molding over muscles, tracing the hard lines of tendons where they stood out against his skinsuit, trickling back up to wind into his hair. 

“Holy crow, I think I have a size kink now. It’s totally okay you’re taller than me.”

“Not like I grew to spite you,” he reminded him, more than content to let his eyes wander as freely as Lance’s hands. Lingering on those lips he loved so much, the way they curved when the Blue Paladin smiled, how they softened when they met his, the smooth planes of his cheeks, the depths of his azure eyes. “Fuck.” The Black Paladin wasn’t the most eloquent, but it was all he had, a sharp exhalation, the click of teeth, a request, a demand.

“Yeah, definitely,” Lance nodded. “When we abandoned the Castle I didn’t forget the important stuff. Our com, Kaltenecker, and definitely lube.”

“Have I said lately I think you’re swell?” Keith asked, taking one step, then another towards the bed. He enjoyed how Lance’s dark skin turned more dusky at the private joke.

“I could stand to hear it more often,” the Blue Paladin admitted as his ankles locked at the base of Keith’s spine so when the Black Paladin leaned over he was brought down on top of Lance. “Your hair…” he whispered as soft fingers slid into it again and Keith’s eyes closed in bliss.

“Yeah, still the mullet you hate, I know,” he murmured into the delectable curve of Lance’s neck as the young man slowly arched under him.

“Mmm, it’s grown on me, babe. Now...I can’t believe I’m saying this but we’ve GOT to stop talking because I really want-” 

Keith cut him off with a firm roll of his hips. He got the message, his Lance wasn’t very subtle, but it was one of the things he loved about him. He didn’t really have to guess with the Blue Paladin, he never had to. 

Keith could see that clearly, in hindsight. His own fear of rejection, when Lance hadn’t done anything but welcome and encourage him, care for him, had been the only thing keeping him from reading all the ways the Blue Paladin had loved him all along.

The way the first time he worked Keith patiently, expertly until he was unspun and gasping, and still he plied his lips, his touch to the Blade until he was satisfied, stupefied.

How Lance clung to him every time he left, so very genuine that Keith’s presence meant so much to him. 

Talked to him, listened to him, read between his lines when Keith fell silent and never once gave the Black Paladin a reason to regret opening up to him in every way.

Keith had fallen for him with each kiss, every touch, every subtle vibration of the com when he was cold and alone. 

But falling didn’t have to be terrifying, a plummet into a fearsome unknown. Keith willingly jumped this time, diving into azure shallows then cobalt depths.

His tongue swept past the Blue Paladin’s lips, as his hands starting peeling his suit off so Keith could lay against warm skin that reminded him of sunlight and sand and crystalline waves under an alien sun. 

He didn’t know Spanish but Keith was fluent in the way his lips traced the bob of Lance’s throat when he swallowed, followed the luxurious curve of his body when he arched up to the Black Paladin as his tongue tripped over a nipple, flickered over it again, again, again until it peaked and sharp teeth nipped.

“Keith,” Lance gasped, his hands forever moving through black hair, combing, tugging, sifting through fingers that tightened and loosened until the Black Paladin’s scalp ached deliciously.

“Promised I’d leave hickeys here, ‘member?” he murmured before he left his mark, another, another, painting his passion over the Blue Paladin’s caramel skin.

“Oh...q-quiznak…” Lance’s long legs slid along his sides, restless, curling, relaxing, bending again, as though unable decide if he wanted to keep Keith right there or wriggle out of the rest of his suit. 

The Black Paladin took the decision from him as fingers curled into inky, smooth fabric and dragged it down, letting it slither to the floor with a sibilant hiss before he reared up on his knees to look his fill. 

His pretty Paladin, Lance, splayed out, bare before him. 

Finally.

 _Finally_.

“C’mere,” the tanned man whispered, reaching for him and Keith let him stroke into his hair again before he leaned down. “Keith!”

He was in love with so many things about Lance, but few more than the way his name sounded when the Blue Paladin’s voice went tremulous, shaking under the weight of other words he left unsaid for now, but which Keith knew.

He loved him.

The Black Paladin moaned, low and throaty at the first taste of Lance on his tongue, thick, heated, even better than he remembered and he was taken back to that first time. 

One day. 

One night.

When Lance had shifted his universe in a way being launched into space in a magic robot cat hardly compared. 

His tongue weaved a loose, slick circuit over the head, traced the vein down the length, and all the while his eyes remained on the Blue Paladin’s face. This time Lance didn’t clap a hand over his mouth to stifle his noises; they dripped as rain over the Black Paladin’s head, trickled into his ears, filled his every sense with the beautiful blue eyed man. All he tasted, saw, knew was Lance.

“Keith,” he sighed again, the Black Paladin’s name floating on the breeze of his breath and Keith answered by letting him slip past his lips, let him sit heavy on his tongue as he sucked, drawing him to full hardness slowly, surely, one drift of his lips at a time. Unhurried, patient, focused.

“K-keith,” Lance whispered his name again, a prayer on repeat, and this time there was a hitch in it, a break and the Black Paladin savored the sight as Lance gradually fractured under his touch. Smooth legs shifted along Keith’s sides, curling to frame him in lithe, strong thighs as his hips tilted up. He hit the back his throat and Keith shuddered and rose, stifling a cough.

“S-sorry,” he muttered, licking his lips. “Been a while.”

“S’okay, babe, c’mere.” The fingers in his hair firmed again and he was pulled leisurely up, dragging deliberately over Lance’s skin, a sidewinder over warm sand. He hovered over the Blue Paladin, eyes wide as though if he blinked Lance would once again be an unfathomable distance away. “I need touch you too.”

Keith found himself gently bullied over and stripped, deft fingers taking the time to linger over every ever scar, new and old, and lips soon followed. The Black Paladin didn’t shy from his touch, never again. 

He wanted Lance to learn him in every way, all the bad along with the good, the pain, the pleasure, Keith would let him in and not hide from him, from the feeling he caused to well up in the Black Paladin, a tide he no longer shied from.

War, empires, abysses and breaks in time, none of it would take him away again. 

It didn’t matter if Shiro took back Black, if Keith had no Lion, if Lance remained in Red or took Blue once more, Keith would be there, next to him, at his back, Lance at his. He’d let nearly everything that mattered slip through his grip, and the hands holding Lance’s shoulders as he gradually wended his way down Keith’s body tightened until the Blue Paladin winced.

“Babe,” Lance urged quitely, rolling his shoulders until Keith’s fingers unknotted, “You don’t need to hang on so tight, I’m not going anywhere.”

He knew, he knew that, but he still he had a hard time grasping this blissful reality was true. That this wasn’t some torturous flash of light from the abyss tormenting him with a glimpse of a future that might never be. 

But he **felt** Lance. Strong hand pulling knees over shoulders, soft lips feathering the sensitive skin of his inner thighs. Shushed, sibilant whispers of his name interwoven, dancing between _te amo...mas...si…te quiero..._

He didn’t need to know the language to pull meaning from it.

This was real, Lance was real and he was here, **they** were real.

“I’m here,” the Blue Paladin agreed and, oh, Keith hadn’t realized he’d muttered that out loud. 

Every last defense he’d had, every wall he’d built up, they were gone and so much was tumbling out that when Lance’s tongue licked over him, begging entrance, Keith cried out. A wordless rush of emotion, a release of tension, over an incomprehensible amount time lost he could never recover...but maybe he shouldn’t wish for it back.

After all, it brought him here. Into the deliriously sure, welcoming embrace of his Blue Paladin.

When Lance’s name slipped off his tongue again, it tripped over, into, inextricably knotted itself into nearly forgotten sounds, syllables, as foreign as this new emotion, welcome as it being returned.

“Lance... **사랑해요** ”

**********************************************************************************************

Two years. 

Lance felt selfish and small in comparison, his measly 50 quintents. So he took it slow, every time Keith urged him on with wordless moans to go faster, harder, the Blue Paladin gentled his touch further, his mouth winding over the gorgeous new, but still familiar, terrain of Keith’s body.

He laced his heart into the way his fingers traced the scar high on his cheek, each time his mouth eased over a barely there freckle, as his tongue flittered over the hard lines of Keith’s abdomen, kissed praise into the deliciously larger, harder swells of muscles he was sure he, himself, didn’t possess.

He didn’t care they were tired, they were dirty, they had no Castle or wormholes; they had each other and that was everything.

Keith loved him, that was the only truth in the vast cosmos that mattered to the Blue Paladin, especially when the whole of the universe seemed to narrow to the ever shrinking space between them.

When he pushed hard thighs over his shoulders so he could favor each one with a litany of kisses, a smattering of bruises, Lance felt nearly high on the Black Paladin. His every sense seemed dulled to the world around them, the creak of the great tree in which they resided, the suss of the wind through the canopy, as his attention narrowed down to Keith’s voice, his skin, his presence.

He’d missed the calloused fingers that found their way into his short hair as his tongue travelled a familiar, long missed path, delicately, determinedly following the sharp V of the Black Paladin’s hips, Keith’s quickly hardening length that Lance favored with a few leisurely sucks before his tongue meandered again, licking over him, into him.

“L-lance,” Keith’s voice sounded again, already reedy. The Blue Paladin didn’t care about anything except making it crack further. His own pleasure was secondary, residing only in Keith’s, watching him come undone, give into pleasure when his life had been so much pain. 

So he rucked Keith’s strong thighs higher and focused on pulling him to pieces with soft lips, firm tongue, and solid hands holding him in place because there was no where else in the universe he’d rather be than between the Black Paladin’s thighs, listening to his increasingly labored breathing laced with Lance’s name.

“F-fuck...Lance...m’gonna...s’been a while...you gotta s-stop…” the Black Paladin eventually grit out, and Lance shook his head and licked again, fingers sneaking to curl around Keith’s cock and slowly stroke him, multiply his pleasure. His thumb swept up, slicking over the weeping head and his Blade cried out again, wordless, beautifully wounded.

When Keith’s thighs trembled on either side of his head, Lance thought of supernovas, how when they exploded they took everything with them before collapsing in on themselves, creating a gravity well from which nothing escaped. When Keith spent, sticky and hot over Lance’s hand, he was drawn in, helplessly, happily, and his mouth moved up, smoothing over his softening length, forever drawn in, never desiring escape.

“Lance...too much…” the Black Paladin groaned.

The Blue Paladin disagreed, there had never been enough between them. Enough time to do this right, be together, learn each other without the threat of death and intergalactic destruction hanging over them. Lance would make enough time tonight to teach Keith every way he could love him.

“C’mon, babe,” he murmured between slow, lazy kisses as Keith’s arms wound around his neck, “I know you got another one in you.” 

His fingers found the lube as the Black Paladin nodded, and soon enough Keith agreed it wasn’t too much; it definitely wasn't nearly enough as his hips tipped down, rocking back on Lance’s fingers as he panted into the sweat damp curl at the Blue Paladin’s temple, mouth slack so every moan slipped free easily. 

Lance could do this all night, near death and rebirth and magic could bring the world down around them again and again and he’d not stop taking Keith apart, opening him up slowly, steadily. 

It had been two years, after all, and Lance would rather die than allow an ounce of pain, whether the Black Paladin enjoyed it or not, leak into the voice murmuring his name over and over, an occasional hissed swear, a demand for more, a request to never stop.

A foreign phase, exotic as the gorgeous human, the incredible alien under him, reached Lance’s ear and he didn’t need to know its origin to feel its intention in every tremble of the Black Paladin under him.

“ ** _Te amo_** ," he replied. A promise, a pact, two words so heavy they brought his mouth down on Keith’s once more, and Lance wasn’t crushed under their weight anymore.

“Lance, please,” the Black Paladin urged, and he shook his head, flexed his fingers and savored the shudder that raced through the indescribably strong man under him, rendered not helpless....Keith was never that...but under Lance’s touch he was beautifully, willingly vulnerable.

Until he wasn’t.

*******************************************************************************************

He couldn’t take it anymore. Lance’s soft touches, his sweet expression as he diabolically dragged Keith into his undertow and threatened to shatter him with each clever stroke of his fingers without ever taking for himself.

If Lance wasn’t going to be selfish, Keith would be enough for both of them. They’d spent way too long putting the universe first, and it hadn’t been a bad thing, but the noble cause had scarred them both in ways they’d never recover from if they didn’t take control.

So he did, hooking a leg over the Blue Paladin’s slim hip and rolling them.

“Kei-!” He cut off another sweet sigh of his name with a forceful kiss, determined to show Lance that yes, it had been two years, and this new acknowledgement of what they had, what they gave words to, their whole hearts to was amazing...but passion was what brought them together in the first place.

Need.

Relentless, searing, burning need.

And Keith needed Lance _right fucking now_.

When the Blue Paladin’s hands swam towards his hair, his touch still soft, as though the Black Paladin were a delicate thing to be touched with care he grabbed them both in one fist and pinned them to the bed by the wrists.

Azure eyes blinked up at him startled, then slid to something devilishly merry. “Getting flashbacks of our first time, babe.”

“Something like that,” Keith promised darkly and his grip squeezed on Lance’s wrists and he smirked at the way those forget-me-not eyes widened, pupils dilated. He didn’t spend another tic working himself open, working Lance up, he’d waited long enough. With his free hand he hastily slicked up the cock he’d had so many fucking dreams about, and a lot of prayers his mom didn’t see when the abyss revealed their lives to each other, then he straddled the Blue Paladin and sank down with a hard shove of his hips that knocked a shout of of both of them.

Two years. Might have been long enough he could have done with a little more of Lance working him open, but Keith gave zero fucks.

He’d spent the last who knew how many doboshes being petted and stroked and touched in so many loving ways he couldn’t take another tic.

“Fuck...need this…need you,” he panted as his hips rose again, followed immediately by a rough rock down that had Lance’s legs bending behind him, hard thigh pressing to his back as the Blue Paladin met the next rock down with a hard thrust up.

“Quiznak...me too,” the captured Paladin moaned, Keith’s delirious prisoner, willingly, ecstatically caged in by the battle hardened body over his. 

The Black Paladin was relentless, riding his lover with as much determination as he’d ever possessed in the heat of battle, his expression fixed, focused on the man under him. As much as he’d savored the sweetness, it wasn’t them, not all of them. 

So much he loved about Lance was tangled up in shitty jokes, snarky laughter, playful and not all that playful insults, jabs they threw at each other that hit their sorest spots because they knew each other so well.

“C’mon, sharpshooter,” the Black Paladin goaded with a wicked smirk as he panted over him, long hair trickling down to brush that gorgeous wrecked face as he licked sloppily into his mouth. “Gimme that good dick.”

The Blue Paladin’s eyes that had slid to half mast snapped open wide at the challenge and he planted his feet on the mattress and bucked, knocking an exultant groan out of Keith. 

“Ngh, fuck yeaH! Harder!”

The next powerhouse thrust up jolted Keith, and his sweating grip slipped. Lance wrenched a hand free to fist into Keith's hair and pull, wrenching his neck back so previously soft lips could dart up to latch onto his throat and suck, then bite. “Ah, shit! Lance!” 

Every vicious curse that fell from Keith’s mouth was gleefully snatched by the Blue Paladin as he took the reigns, and the sharp cut of his hips slammed so hard into Keith the Black Paladin prayed he’d have the dumbest bruises on his ass tomorrow. When Lance finally released his hair the Black Paladin swayed, back arching as he sought that perfect angle, so that thick cock he’d literally dreamed about for two fucking years hammered his sweet spot relentlessly.

“C’mon, Keith,” the Blue Paladin gritted out as the hand that had been freed from the Black Paladin’s vice grip darted down to snake around his cock to stroke hard. “Ride me, cowboy.”

Keith choked on a disbelieving laugh, which tightened...everything in a way that had his vision going hazy as he stared down disbelievingly at Lance. “You ever call me that again-AGH! FUCK!” The complete and utter bastard that was his boyfriend snatched the insult right out of Keith with another rough jolt of his hips that actually bounced the Black Paladin.

He’d get even with Lance for this later, Keith swore. But right now he was getting what he demanded: the Blue Paladin’s thick, delicious cock filling him in ways he’d tortured himself over for countless quintents, wondering if all he’d ever have was unsatisfactory memories of Lance filling him for the rest of his lonely life.

Keith's head rocked back, dark hair streaming down his shoulders in a jumbled, sweaty mess as he rocked down hard, grinding until the Blue Paladin bottomed out. Keith snaked his hips in a dirty serpentine that had them both shouting as he was delectably filled then fucked into the tight slick circle of Lance’s fist.

“C’mon, babe,” the Blue Paladin crooned and, oh shit, Keith was in trouble because he knew that tone. “Come on me, make me messy.” Lance and his goddamn dirty talk delivered with such a sweet tone, such sinful words dripping from a ridiculously angelic countenance. 

“Tight as the first time, Keith,” Lance continued as he shook sweat damp hair from azure eyes, gazing up at him with a look porn stars should envy as he pounded into the Black Paladin again with a groan. “Don’t make me beg, baby.”

“I won’t,” the Black Paladin promised as he snaked his hips again, his breathing shattered, out of his control and he was dizzy, drunk, high as the stratosphere on Lance in him, under him, his sinful voice pouring in his ears, poisoning him for all others. “Fuck, come in me.”

“Oh thank god...cuz...agh…” Lance yanked his other hand free of Keith’s now slack grip and it darted into dark hair to yank the Black Paladin down hard enough that when they tried to kiss a lip was bitten. “Mr. Stamina I ain’t tonight.” 

Keith was rocked sideway as the Blue Paladin forcefully rolled them, and his head hung over the side of the bed as Lance jerked one of his legs over an arm, a sloppy, inelegant reminder of their first night when he nearly bent the Black Paladin in half as he fucked him so good Keith never ever wanted another being to touch him.

“Fuck yeah, like that,” he demanded, “Just like just like that fuck!” Keith fisted his cock and jerked quick, hard and bared his neck as Lance’s mouth came down on it again, forceful, undeniable, and the Black Paladin knew he’d be black and blue tomorrow. He couldn’t wait.

“Goddamnit, Lance, fuck me like you mean it!” he goaded breathlessly then shuddered hard as another deep, forceful stroke made every nerve in his body snap to attention, draw everything tight as a piano wire. Keith's body sang when he heard Lance’s voice dip into the lower register. 

“Gonna make you scream for me, babe.”

Yup, Keith was doomed. He was so fine with that.

Lance’s fingers slithered down, scratched down Keith’s chest in a way the Black Paladin loved and swatted his hand away from his cock, taking over and immediately yanking a yell from Keith as his rhythm, damn him, was perfect. Each time he fucked up into the Black Paladin his fingers slid up tight and slicked over the head with an obscene, wet noise. Every time Lance rolled down, nearly leaving the desperate clutching heat of Keith's body a clever, dark hand stroked down just as firm and squeezed the base. 

It only took a half a dozen strokes before Keith arched harshly under his Paladin, hands darting out to dig into whatever he could reach, nails scoring the shape of his passion into Lance's sunlit skin, stinging, fiery scratch marks down Lance’s shoulders, his arms as he came in pulses over pale skin, darker scars, darker still slim fingers that never eased their grip and wrung quickly oversensitized groans from the Black Paladin.

He loved this jerk, loved how he drove him nuts and kept him sane, loved how he fucked him like an unrepentant sinner and saved his soul, a saint.

When Lance finally spent in him, hunched over the Black Paladin and shuddering hard, flanks heaving like a racehorse, caged in the embrace of Keith’s legs locked around his waist he collapsed onto him, heedless of the mess squished between them, Keith murmured again he'd never leave. 

It would be like leaving the whole of his heart behind, and he needed that to survive. He no longer wanted to just exist, he wanted to _live_ and only with Lance could he.

****************************************************************************************************

Lance would’ve been a little irked that Keith took control of the Blue Paladin’s primo treatment of him, when Lance had been determined to touch him with sweetness, with care, and turned it into, basically, a heated, naked wrestling match, the two of them spitting fire, passion at each other with bitten off curses of each other’s name.

But he wasn’t, not when, after they both passed out from both physical and emotional exhaustion for a few vargas, Lance woke up to Keith wiping him down with a wet cloth, then guiding his sleepy butt out of bed to the joyous discovery of an actual bathtub in the bathroom of their little slice of heaven among the treetops.

The Blue Paladin couldn’t be anything but lazily overjoyed as he got to collapse onto Keith’s stupidly, amazing, almost Shiro-esque beefy chest and get treated to a little pampering like the flipping luxury guy he was. While he enjoyed dazedly tracing Keith’s rock hard pecs with his fingers he got his hair washed, even if the dingus got some soap in his eyes because he didn’t know much about hair care. But Keith, at least, used the stuff in the right order under Lance’s explicit direction.

“Why do you have all this?” Keith complained without an ounce of rancor in his voice as he massaged conditioner into Lance’s short strands.

“Because not all of us are effortlessly gorgeous,” he sighed happily, eyes closed as Keith’s maaaagic fingers did their thing. “I bet you hacked at your hair with your luxite blade while on that whale, which I definitely want to hear all about. Later.” Lance had only grasped the gist of Keith’s insane journey; he'd been kinda distracted thinking he was about to get dumped on his pert butt to recall all the details.

“Well, yeah, what else was I gonna use?”

The Blue Paladin groaned quietly before he sat up. “Let me do something with your hair. One time, and I’ll never ask again.” He was ready to throw in an offer to bottom again, anything Keith wanted if only he could do something about that horrendous mull-

“Yeah, sure,” the Black Paladin said carelessly with a shrug.

“...for real?”

“Yeah, why not, it’s just hair.”

Oh ho ho, just hair, Lance thought. Keith would learn; he’d have to to keep Lance from pulling his own luxurious strands out one by one in aggravation. 

He also couldn’t remain irked when Keith lead him back to bed and this time Lance McClain got the kinda sexing he’d read about in his sisters’ romance novels, seen in his beloved rom-coms.

Slow.

 _Gentle_.

And so intense that when he felt his eyes water he didn’t hide but instead turned his cheek into Keith’s rough palm as the Black Paladin clumsily brushed tears away, whispering, “Are you okay?”

“Uh-huh,” he breathed as he felt Keith move over him again, gently rocking with him, taking his time, no heady dash for the finish, only the slow, undulating enjoyment of their bodies moving in unison, smoothing away every last one of his fears.

Like waves over sand.

“Say it again.”

“ **사랑해요**.”

“Slower...I wanna learn it.”

“Sarang...haeyo.”

“Sarang...haeyo…” Lance lost count of the times he mangled syllables as he sighed them over and over, but Keith never once complained. The Black Paladin sipped the words from his lips like Olkari r’thrybek.

Later, when they were curled around each other, Keith’s head on Lance’s chest and the Blue Paladin’s fingers slowly sliding through dark hair, gently untangling the few knots he found there with a little smile, Lance thought he’d never been happier in his whole life.

And soon, hopefully, they’d be returning to Earth, all of them. He could see his family, introduce them to his new family. To Pidge, to Shiro, Allura, all of them. To Keith. He wanted the people he loved most in the universe to love each other too. 

“Lance?”

“Yeah, babe?”

“Before we leave Olkarion, you think we could go dancing again?”

 **Now** Lance was the happiest he’d ever been.

“Only if I’m the one who gets to blow you in a space broom closet.” 

The pillow slammed into his face did zero to muffle his laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was that enough feels and smut for you?
> 
> If you enjoy my garbage, and also the hot mess that is Supernatural, feel free to subscribe to my other in-progress fic The Fundamentals of Being Human, which I will return to working on full-time now that this feels-fest is done.
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me and my first Voltron fic!


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